Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead

“Christopher was dead. They’d found him bobbing on the water’s surface, his eyes bulging and empty, just before dawn.”

Finn’s narrative opens with a vivid description that deliberately implies the gruesome image of a human drowning victim. “Christopher,” however, is a goldfish, not a human being. The revelation of this fact establishes the humorous tone of the novel and lays a foundation for its thematic interest in The Irony and Absurdity of Life.

“My mom will understand. She’ll probably even pack you some turkey and pie to go.”

Finn’s certainty of her mother’s reaction to Vero suddenly deciding to leave the Thanksgiving celebration is a testament to Susan’s motherly love—for both Finn and Vero. This helps characterize Susan as a warm and understanding person and supports both the motif of motherly love and the theme of Women’s Networks of Support.

“My thoughts drifted to that stupid pink trowel above the workbench in my garage—the only tool Steven had bothered to leave on the pegboard when he’d moved out. I thought about all those empty pegs and dust-filled drawers. About the lengths Vero and I had gone to just to find a damn shovel to bury a body.”

Finn’s musings about the missing tools focus on the only tool that Steven left for her: a pink trowel, its color symbolic of femininity and its size inadequate for the challenges that Finn faces. The fact that the only tool he left her is functionally useless illustrates what Steven thinks of her and his typical underestimation of her. The comic surprise of what Finn specifically needed tools for—to bury a body—signals that Finn is a determined and capable woman who will find a way to thrive regardless of the obstacles put in her way, supporting the novel’s theme of