The Gathering

Content Warning: This section of the guide summarizes and analyzes the source text’s graphic depiction of the sexual abuse of children, grief, addiction, and death by suicide.

Veronica learns that Liam drowned himself by putting stones in his pockets. She’s saddened that he wasn’t wearing any underwear or socks at the time of his death, which speaks to a new debasement in his level of care before death.

Veronica decides to “call an end to romance and just say what happened at Ada’s house, the year that I was eight and Liam was barely nine” (142). One day, Veronica had wandered into a room and found Nugent sexually assaulting Liam; Nugent made Liam touch his penis.

Veronica spends nights driving slowly through the city, a little drunk. When her husband is alarmed that she comes in early in the morning, she engages in oral sex with him. She falls asleep in her daughter’s bed, wishing she could “finish the job of making [her daughter], because when she is fully made she will be strong” (152).