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The Spinning Heart: Chapter Breakdown (Chapter 3 / Lilly: (Lilly was a…
The Spinning Heart: Chapter Breakdown
Chapter 1 / Bobby:
Bobby goes to his father's house everyday which is just down the road from the weir.
Bobby tells the reader about how much he hates his father and how he wishes his father would just die, but everyday, he is father let's him down when Bobby finds out that he is still alive.
Bobby says that when his father eventually dies, he's going to burn down the cottage and piss on the ashes.
The father also owns two acres of land which Bobby is going to sell when the father dies but every day the land loses value, so Bobby won’t get as much money as before for the land which makes the father happy.
Bobby talks about the time that Mickey Briars was looking for his stamps (Social Welfare/Dole Money) and pension and he couldn’t get it and he went mad & beat up Timmy Hanrahan and afterwards they took him to a bar, and he got sick because he got so drunk and they sent him home afterwards with some sausages and chips.
Bobby then tells the reader that he lost his job because his boss (Pokey Burke) did a runner with their money as he never paid their deductions e.g. PRSI, PAYE, USE. Pokey also owed money left, right and centre.
Bobby talks about how he is jealousy / hatred of Seanie and on how he has a big and happy family. Even though they are friends, Bobby still hates him because he has a nice & good relationship with his family.
Bobby goes to Pokey Burke’s father’s house because Pokey owes him money. Pokey’s father (Josie) tells him that he wasn’t home so Bobby assumes that Pokey has “skipped town” with Bobby’s money.
Bobby has a wife called Triona and he loves her very much and a child called Robert.
Chapter 2 / Josie:
Josie is Pokey’s (Sean Pol) father.
Josie has two sons, Pokey being the younger son and the older son is called Eamonn.
Josie also has a daughter who is a hippie called Mags.
Josie loves Eamonn more than he loves Pokey because he is the eldest son, so he gives the eldest son all his love and then just gives Pokey lots of money instead. We are not told if there is any reason why Josie loves Eamonn more or if there is any reason at all.
Josie (Short for Joseph) is named after his father.
Josie wished that he wasn’t so rude to Bobby when he called around to ask where Pokey is because he owed him money and now he feels bad about it.
Josie tried to “get with” Lilly at a bar even though that his wife had a baby on the way and Josie didn’t treat the girl nicely and everybody in the town most likely knows about it.
Chapter 3 / Lilly:
Lilly was a prostitute.
She had five children from getting pregnant from the men she has had sex with.
When she was giving birth to her fifth / last child, she accidently revealed to her nosey mid-wife who the father was, and she went around the town telling everyone that Bernie was the father.
When the baby was born, Bernie went to Lilly’s house, punched her in the face twice which knocked out her front tooth and then he left behind twenty euro behind for the baby.
Sometimes she had to “get with” farmers that smelt horrible of different types of animal poo.
Lilly only rejected men who were really and truly disgusted by me.
Sometimes men would force her and be rough with her to have sex even though she willing to have sex, she didn’t like it when men were rough with her.
Because of the hard life she has had, her physical appearance makes her look much older than she already is, and she also has arthritis which leaves her in constant pain.
People said that Lilly had a wanton look about her.
She has a special liking towards John-John, her most recent child. John-John would come into her house whenever he liked to take money to buy drink even though that money was left out by Lilly for John-John anyway.
Most of her children neglect her, probably because they are embarrassed by her.
Lilly was able to send one of her children to Trinity College in Dublin and she got him nice clothes for him to go to school in. She wasn’t invited to the graduation party, but her son’s girlfriend & mother were invited by him though. She was very upset about this.
Lilly has no regrets about the way she lived her life. “I at least the author of my own tale? And if you can say that as you depart this world, you can say a lot”.
Lilly is thinking about killing herself quickly somehow, so she doesn’t die slowly so her family doesn’t have to be sad and look after her when she dies.
Chapter 4 / Vasya:
Vasya is originally from Siberia.
Vasya can only speak “sentences up to two – three words long” and he is able to facial expressions to communicate with his boss “Bobby”.
Vasya spends the opening of his chapter talking about how green Ireland is during the hot and cold seasons and how everywhere he goes, he is surrounded by the sea.
His boss once took him to the seaside once to meet up with his family and Vasya spent most of the time looking out to the sea.
The mother wasn’t happy that Vasya was with them because she wanted to have some family time and the child was curious to why Vasya was looking out to sea for so long.
Vasya’s family reared reindeer for a living back in Siberia.
Four years ago, while Vasya and his brother were at work in Siberia, the brother got into a fight with some workmen and Vasya had to drag him away from the fight.
The morning after that fight, policemen called around to Vasya shack and told him that they found his brother dead between two buildings.
Vasya felt that it would bring shame upon his family to go back home now that his brother is dead, so he illegal moved to Ireland.
Vasya worked for “Cash in hand” / “Under the counter” for Pokey.
So when Pokey did a runner, Vasya could not get any social welfare assistance.
Chapter 5 / Réaltín:
Réaltín has a good relationship with her father and they see each other often.
Réaltín lives in a “ghost estate”. She lives in house number 23 and there is an old lady who lives down the road from her and Réaltín doesn’t go to visit this old lady.
Her mother is dead for a good while now and the father has a new girlfriend called Bridey.
The father comes to clean the grass and look after the house.
The estate agent that sold the house to her said that Réaltín had to pay the deposit today or else the house might be sold by the next day, so Réaltín paid the deposit.
Her son’s name is Dylan, she is unsure who the father is. She is not sure if it is her boss George (She had a one-night stand with him) who is old, horny, small & wrinkly or her ex-boyfriend, Seanie.
Chapter 6 / Timmy:
Timmy’s not the smartest person.
He jokes about him getting his head getting kicked in by Mickey.
Everyone blames Timmy for everything, and he tries to show that he is not weak.
Mickey lost his temper in the office when he couldn’t get paid and beat up Timmy badly.
Timmy works for Bobby and Pokey.
On his first day of work, the boss tried to take the mick with Timmy by sending him down to the shops to look for straight springs.
Timmy’s mother died giving birth to Timmy and all the children were separated and given to different relatives to mind, Timmy’s eldest sister Noreen felt guilty that she didn’t take in Timmy and mind him.
Chapter 7 / Brian:
Brian has to move to Australia because he cannot get a job.
His parents don’t want him to move to Australia because it is too far away from home.
His girlfriend doesn’t want him to move to Australia either because she knows that all he’s going to be doing is chasing girls there.
Brian says that when he comes home from Australia, he’s fat stomach will be gone, and he’ll have made a few grande from his new job.
Brian talks about meeting a blonde over in Australia and he’ll only fancy her because he broke up with his girlfriend and he’s now only looking for “a ride”.
Brian mentions a rumour that Bobby is having an affair with Réaltín.
Brian also mentions how he wishes that he was Bobby.
Chapter 8 / Trevor:
Trevor has sunglasses that cover the side of his eyes so girls can’t see that he is looking at their legs as they pass by. Trevor mentions that some of their skirts are so short that you can almost see their underwear.
Trevor is not mentally stable.
His father had a disease where he had multiple personalities and he died from it. It’s not revealed how exactly he died but it had something to do with his disorder. Trevor’s mother believes that Trevor is showing signs of this disorder as well.
Trevor is convinced that his mother is out to get him / kill.
Trevor’s mother is friends with Doherty. Doherty lives in the same ghost estate as Réaltín, she’s the old lady who lives in the last house down the road.
Trevor’s mother sends him to Doherty’s house to get him to do some jobs e.g. painting windowsills.
Trevor has a thing for Réaltín, he wonders if she has a boyfriend, but he knows for sure that she isn’t married. Trevor knows that Seanie calls around to walk Réaltín’s son, he knows that Réaltín’s father calls around to cut the grass and he knows about a tanned muscular man who calls around with tools (Bobby?)
He daydreams about saving Réaltín from a bogey man, an unknown quantity.
Trevor is thinking about killing his mother and Doherty to try bring some evil out of the world.
Chapter 9 / Bride:
Bridie’s second son drowned while he was out with his uncle and brother by the sea in County Clare.
Bridie then went to the church giving out to God on how God has to punish us just because his son also died. She asked God was her son Peter going to come back to life after three days like Jesus did.
Bridie’s husband blamed her for Peter’s death. He got a divorce from Bridie after Peter’s death.
Bridie can no longer set foot in County Clare because of Peter’s death twenty years ago.
She mentally changed after Peter died, she became angry and short-tempered very quickly.
Bridie has a soft spot for Bobby, she remembers the time that Bobby’s father Frank got drunk and Bobby’s mother and he stayed the night at Bridie’s.
Chapter 10 / Jason:
Jason has tattoos on his face (Celtic Cross, Snakes) and there all a bit messed up now since he’s gotten older.
He suffers from post dramatic stress from being sexually abused as a child.
• He mentions how Bobby killed his father and Jason believes that Bobby did kill Frank even though he mentions that Bobby is “sound”.
Chapter 11 / Hillary:
Hillary works with Réaltín in George’s office (He is a solicitor).
She spends almost all of the chapter just talking about Réaltín.
She does do a lot of complaining about Réaltín even though she does love her, as a friend though.
Hillary doesn’t think that Bobby and Réaltín are having an affair, Réaltín has told her that Bobby hasn’t even touched her.
Hillary talks about the garda calling over to Réaltín to question her about Bobby after Frank is murdered.
Hillary talks about how Réaltín on purpose broke things in her house just so Bobby could come over and repair them, this was only so Réaltín could see Bobby.
Chapter 13 / Kate
Kate is married to Denis. Denis has no work at the moment.
Kate runs a creche.
Kate’s business almost went out of business when Dell shut down and loads of parents lost their jobs so they couldn’t pay for their children to go to for babysitting.
Because she had saved money in the good times, she was able to survive.
Kate put up flyers around the place and decreased her prices by a bit just so she could get some business going.
She finally got back on her feet after a bit and the new government child free year really helped her.
Two days after Réaltín booked Dylan into Kate’s childcare, Trevor applied for a job in Kate’s business.
Kate gave the job to Trevor because Trevor wasn’t that masculine, he was a Montessori teacher and he had all the references and qualifications.
Kate does not like Nuala, one of her staff members who wears short skirts and smokes during the breaks.
When things were bad, Nuala did not help, and she complained when Kate said she would have to reduce their wages.
Chapter 12 / Seanie:
Seanie is his nickname.
As a younger boy, Seanie was obsessed with women and sex.
Seanie spends most of his chapter talking about some of the women he has “gotten with” during the times he was a teenager and up to now. He gets into detail on what he has done with these women.
He fell in love with Réaltín from the first moment he saw her, he might be Dylan, her son’s, father.
He loves Dylan.
He has heard the rumours about Réaltín’s “affair” with Bobby.
Seanie says how he wishes that he could be Seanie again because now he is suffering from depression and is consider drowning by jumping into the sea.
Chapter 14 / Lloyd
Lloyd is friends with Trevor.
Trevor gets Lloyd to help him kidnap Dylan to make it look like that Trevor’s mother and Doherty kidnapped Dylan.
Lloyd’s dad left him as a child and remarried and had another son.
Lloyd’s mum visits him every once and a while and is scared of him, she’s scared that he’s doing drugs.
Lloyd believes in solipsism, he believes that the world is built up of a population of one person, him.
Lloyd has kidnapped Dylan by the end of the chapter and Dylan is in Lloyd home now, so Lloyd looks after Dylan until further notice by Trevor.
Chapter 15 / Rory:
Rory helped Bobby with construction.
Rory is shy and he has no confidence.
He met a girl called Holly and he wants to go to this gig with her but he’s too afraid to ask her to go with him.
Rory doesn’t believe the rumours going around about Bobby having an affair with Réaltín.