Tied Together

What I loved about how this novel came together, was that everything mentioned was important. Her boyfriend that she was with the night before her family’s disappearance ended up helping uncover the mystery in the end. All the little mysteries, even the brown car that drove past Cynthia and Grace while Grace was on her way to school, was uncovered. Even small details such as Cynthia being a great tennis player and having a great back-hand came into importance when she swung at Rolland Carruthers with the telescope (pg. 462). It takes a talented author to include strictly important details and remember to tie in every small aspect before the novel ends.

Character Chart

Cynthia (main character)
-entire family (mom, dad, brother) disappeared suddenly without notice while she was only 14
-was a handful at times as a child
-had next to no extended family
-moved in with her Aunt Tess after her family’s disappearance
-went to The University of Connecticut where she met her husband Terry
-has always held on tight to the past in hopes for answers
-recorded a Deadline episode 25 years later about her family’s disappearance
-used to have a career in social work
-now works at Pamela’s dress shop because she offers accommodating hours

Aunt Tess
-Cynthia moved in with her as it was the only real family she had left
-was left by her husband for a barmaid from Stamford
-used to work in a radio factory
-then started working for the county doing clerical work in the roads department
-only really had the money to support herself but made it work somehow when she took in Cynthia
-never had children of her own
-now in her late 60s and retired
-sick and dying soon

Terry (narrator)
-Cynthia’s husband
-realist
-also went to The University of Connecticut
-teaches English and creative writing in a highschool

Grace
-Cynthia and Terry’s 8 years old daughter
-interested in space
-wants more freedom

Clayton
-Cynthia’s father
-married to Patricia
-worked out of town a lot
-parents died when he was young
-wasn’t a sentimentalist, never kept family photo albums of past generations
-had a house fire when he was 15 which burned down his childhood home

Patricia
-Cynthia’s mother
-married to Clayton
-kept photos of her childhood, extended family and friends
-father died when she was young, mother was still alive when she met Clayton
-(Aunt) Tess is her sister
-her family, especially Tess, wasn’t overly keen on Clayton
-was working in a Milford drugstore when she met Clayton who was stopping in for a Mars Bar while on a sales trip

Rolland Carruthers
-called Rolly by Terry
-principal at the school Terry teaches at
-one of Terry’s best friends but is 20 years older, therefore also providing advice as a father figure
-was good friends with Clayton
-helped Tess with Cynthia and was like an uncle to her
-married to a woman named Millicent

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More Information About Characters

Denton Abagnall
-detective hired to help solve the Bigge family mystery
-married
-went missing and was later found to have been murdered

Rona Wedmore
-detective who came around after the disappearance of Denton Abagnall
-has suspicions about Cynthia and her family’s disappearance
-isn’t completely trusted by Cynthia and Terry, only because she doesn’t completely trust them

Vince Fleming
-Cynthia’s boyfriend when she was 14
-the boy she was with the night of her family’s disappearance
-high up in city gangs, has people who work for him, has been involved in multiple crimes/murders
-helps to unfold the mystery of the Bigge family’s disappearance

**Clayton Bigge’s real name is Clayton Sloan**

Enid Sloan
-Clayton’s “other” and first wife
-completely insane, malicious, and wicked
-murderer
-terrible wife

Jeremy Sloan
-Clayton’s “other” and first son
-son of Enid Sloan
-brainwashed by Enid to hate his father
-does everything for his mother

Allusion

On page 107, Terry compares Cynthia to Inspector Clouseau who is the police detective in The Pink Panther series. He is incompetent and commedically clumsy and obvious when investigating. This comparison shows that Cynthia as well was incompetent to be spying on a man who resembled her brother and was also very obvious about her snooping.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Clouseau

Final thoughts/lessons

There are many things that can be taken away from this novel and what you take from it depends on your past experiences and connections to the story and its characters.
If you are able to connect to and empathize more for Terry, you may feel like the novel is trying to teach you to let go of the past and move on.
I personally feel like that is the opposite of what the author wanted to teach readers. I feel like this is a novel based on perseverance and commitment. Never giving up hope and following through with your dream.
Connecting to the themes of Canadian literature, the novel also teaches how to persevere through your biggest obstacles even when you’re feeling alone.

Canadian Literature

Before I began reading No Time For Goodbye, I expected it to be set in Canada since it is by a Canadian author and a form of Canadian literature. Once I began the novel, I realized it was set in and around Connecticut which is in America. This completely threw me off with the idea of Canadian literature.
Reflecting on the story though, I have realized that themes of Canadian literature were touched on throughout the entire story.
Cynthia always felt very alone and different from everyone since the experience of losing her family. Both of these are themes used in Canadian literature. Dealing with the loss of her family along with all of the drama it has brought her through her whole life and then unfolding the truth of what happened, all were huge obstacles which Cynthia faced. Lastly, when she finally found out what happened to her family and who her father really was, she finally knew who she was and was able to accept everything and move forward with her life.
Even though the story was not set in Canada, the themes throughout No Time For Goodbye definitely reflected Canadian literature.

Fell’s Quarry

I researched many of the places and even the streets in the novel and the author was very accurate with his directions and settings but the quarry where Patricia and Todd Bigge were found was not something I could find. I would have loved to find a picture of the cliff the characters stood atop and where the cars would have driven over but there was so such place. I found the highway leading to the road that was supposed to lead to Fell’s Quarry but the Quarry was not there. If it was renamed and was based on one of the small bodies of water around there, I was not able to determine the specific area.

Phallic Symbol

“The man I knew to be Vince Fleming speared a sausage with his fork, held it in place, then picked up the steak knife and cut off a piece.” (Barclay 306)

These are very strong phallic words, all used to show that Vince Fleming holds the power in this situation over Terry Archer. Words like “speared” and phrases such as “held in place” are used to mirror what Vince could do to a human such as Terry. Since the novel is narrated by Terry, the word choice shows the intimidation Terry is feeling from Vince. The steak knife is the main phallic symbol in this part and is a popular phallic symbol used in literature.

Biggest Shock

The biggest shock I had when reading was revealed near the end and it was something I never would have guessed. When Jeremy Sloan admitted to never have killing anyone, I was extremely confused as to who had murdered Aunt Tess and Denton Abagnall. Finding out it was Rolland Carruthers, just so he could hide what he had done in the past and also finding out that he knew about everything that had happened to the Bigge family, I was completely shocked.

Comparison

Comparing my prediction to what actually ended up happening, I was pretty accurate with my hypothesis. The only thing I was not able to figure out and I was glad to have an explanation about was why and how Todd and Patricia Bigge ended up driving over the cliff and into a lake. Even my own predictions had not seemed to be possible so knowing that they were murdered by Enid Sloan and then to hide the murder, Clayton helped her put them in the car and drive it over the edge, helped to clarify a lot of questions.

Major prediction

Currently (up to chapter 40), there is a man who looks like Todd, but goes by a different name, living with his father who has the same first name as Cynthia’s father, as well as his mother. It was presumed that Cynthia’s mother and brother were found dead in a car at the bottom of a lake but it still hasn’t been confirmed that the mother and son found were related to Cynthia.
My prediction is that this man who looks like Todd, could possibly be a different son that Clayton had with a different woman. He may have had a completely different family. The resemblance between Todd and this man (Jeremy Sloan) could possible be caused from having the same father. This would also explain why there are no records of Cynthia’s father (because he had a different identity as Clayton Sloan) and it would also explain why he was always away for “work”. He might have actually just been balancing his life with a different family. Maybe Cynthia’s mother and brother found out about the other family and felt the need to leave and either accidentally road off the cliff into the water, or they wanted to die but they left Cynthia so she didn’t have to find out that her whole life was a lie. It could have been Clayton who was leaving the money for Cynthia for school because he felt bad about abandoning her. It would also explain why the Enid Sloan (Clayton’s wife/Jeremy’s mother) was claiming that all the money he was leaving her should have been hers.

Continued thought

Following chapter 28 was another chapter in italics. This chapter confirmed that it is from a mother’s perspective talking to her son. In the chapter she stated that her and the boy’s father are the ones who dumped the car in the lake.
She also found it amusing that they were “assuming” that Patricia and Todd’s bodies were the ones found in the car until more test results can confirm it.
From the content of pervious italics chapters as well as this one, I stick to my prediction that it is Cynthia’s mother and brother speaking in these chapters.