The Heart's Invisible Furies

Cyril goes to the prison to visit Charles. Cyril finds that Charles has aged, but is happier to see him than usual, even hugging him and telling him he is happy to have adopted Cyril. Cyril continually has to remind Charles of what and who he is talking about and who he is. The conversation is laced with humorous moments, but it is clear that Charles is confused and suffering from memory problems. Despite Charles’s happy disposition, Cyril becomes concerned, and decides he will help Charles find a place to live when his sentence is over and find a doctor for him.

Cyril goes to a pub to watch a rugby game and finds Liam and his friend Jimmy there. Jimmy asks Cyril several inappropriate questions about his sex life and then discusses his own and Liam’s before returning his attention to the game. Cyril worries that Liam has no understanding of what a healthy relationship should look like. He thinks back to when he first saw Alice after Bastiaan’s death. He wrote her a letter explaining everything and apologizing, and several weeks later, she wrote back agreeing to meet. Cyril apologized again in person, admitting his shame in leaving Alice the way he did. He tried to explain his actions away, but Alice would not accept any of it. She became angry, telling Cyril he was a selfish liar, and revealing that Charles supported her after Cyril left. Alice asked about Julian’s death and why Cyril didn’t tell her before Julian died. She was relieved to know Cyril was present. When she brought out a picture of Liam to show Cyril, they both agreed he looks like Julian, but Cyril sees someone else in Liam.

When Cyril met Liam a year later after he turns 18, Cyril told him his life story from the time he met Julian. At the end, Liam walked away without much of a word, trying to process the information. In the present, they continue watching the game, but Cyril knows there is still great distance between himself and Liam.

A younger TD asks Cyril out on a date. The man wants to go somewhere discreet. In the meantime, Cyril attends Catherine’s retirement party, and confides in her about his date. Catherine confides in Cyril about her pregnancy and the baby she gave up before being called away by her friends for a photo. When Cyril goes on his date, he finds the man, Andrew, to be shallow, bigoted, and self-serving. Andrew only wants Cyril for sex, is only in politics to be successful, and has a fiancée he is deceiving. After discovering this, Cyril denies Andrew’s invitation to go home together.

Charles is diagnosed with a brain tumor and released from prison. Alice agrees to let Charles move in to the house at Dartmouth Square since she admires Charles and feels as though she owes him. Cyril and Alice are on better terms now, able to tease one another and have civil conversation; when Cyril teases Alice about getting back together, she says, “I’d rather bore a hole to the center of the earth with my tongue” (478). Alice has a new boyfriend living with her who is also named Cyril, and Charles moves in as well.

One day while Cyril is visiting Charles, Charles tells him that he has left all of his money as well as the rights to Maude’s books (now worth millions) to Cyril. Cyril is shocked but happily accepts. As Charles nears his death, Cyril asks to move in. Alice agrees. Charles finishes all of Maude’s books, expressing regret for not treating her better. When Cyril goes to bed, he lies in the same bed and room that he did as a child and thinks about how his life has come back to this point. A few days later, Charles dies, but not before telling Cyril he “came damn close” (486) to being a real Avery.

Cyril is 56 and invited to a literary festival with Ignac in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Ignac’s wife, Rebecca, is busy at home with two sets of twins. Cyril compares watching Ignac and Maude at their readings: Maude read only once, hating the entire event and doing nothing but read from her novel for two hours; Ignac has been to dozens of events and enjoys fan interaction. When it is over three days later, Ignac suggests a trip to Maribor.

Maribor is where Ignac was born, and he wants to confront his past while he is in Slovenia. He solemnly takes Cyril through his old streets until they reach a small house. Afterward, they go to a pub and talk about the past, criticizing the injustices of the world. Cyril feels no guilt over what happened to Damir in Amsterdam. Ignac, too, has no remorse. Ignac reveals he has been in touch with Jack Smoot, who told Ignac that he sunk Damir’s body to the bottom of the canal.

Ignac’s grandmother walks into the pub and Ignac starts panicking. She criticizes Ignac for never giving her money and tells Cyril he is not Ignac’s father before Ignac throws some money at her to get her to leave. Ignac reveals that when he was a child, he discovered how to sell his body for money, and that when his grandmother found out, she decided to profit from it. Ignac ran away and found his father in Amsterdam, who did the same thing.

Cyril is sitting in the tearoom at the Dáil when a female TD approaches him, asking him personal questions. She finally reveals that she has a sister who is interested in dating him, and Cyril does his best to make it clear he is not interested without revealing his sexuality. As they talk, the television in the tearoom shows the World Trade Center in New York City being struck by a plane. Moments later, people begin jumping out of the windows. Cyril notices a reporter standing in the same spot where Bastiaan was murdered. The new manager of the tearoom insists on turning it off.

It’s Christmas morning and Liam’s wife, Laura, is about to give birth to their second son. As Cyril waits in the hospital with Alice and Laura’s parents, they converse about various topics. The conversation eventually turns to Cyril’s sexuality, as is often the case, and Cyril is once again forced to answer ridiculous questions. Ironically, when Cyril asks if Laura’s parents have any gay children, they answer that they do not, but they have a son who has been living with a man for several years. When Laura’s father implies that Bastiaan deserved what happened to him for being gay, Alice snaps at him, and thankfully Liam comes out in that moment holding his new son. Cyril asks to hold him, and Liam smiles, calling Cyril “Dad” for the first time.

The families disperse but Cyril decides to stay with Liam for a while. Before Alice leaves, she makes sure that Cyril will be coming for Christmas dinner, considering him part of the family now. Liam named his new son Julian, after the uncle who brought him up, and although Cyril feels envious, he loves baby Julian deeply and accepts Liam’s decision. Cyril and Liam grow closer as Liam lets go of his anger and Cyril allows himself to open up.

Cyril is on his way out of the hospital when he sees Mrs. Goggin in the chapel, crying. is She reveals that her son, Jonathan, died that day, and that he wasn’t the first son she lost. When she tells Cyril that she gave her first son up for adoption to “a little hunchbacked redemptorist nun” (532), the same story Cyril heard growing up, he at first does not register what she said. After he leaves, he realizes she is his mother. He runs back, asking the date of her first son’s birth, and when she reveals it, all becomes clear.

Cyril is 63 years old and Catherine is in her late seventies. They are on their way to Goleen. On the train ride, the contrast becomes clear between Cyril’s approach to aging and his mother’s. Cyril bears a crutch, neglects the possibility of finding love again, and avoids learning about new technology and trends—the opposite of his mother. Cyril asks Catherine why she never returned to Goleen before; she responds that it was a life she put behind her, and one that she knew had rejected her, too.

Cyril reflects that his reunion with his mother was complicated; hearing who he was came as an immense shock, and Cyril gave Catherine a few weeks before he wrote to her. They soon met up and found the atmosphere awkward at first. Cyril assured Catherine he harbored no ill feelings against her. She asked about his adoptive parents, to which Charles replied his childhood was adequate enough. He wanted to know about his mother’s life and how he came to exist, so she told him about Kenneth, her uncle in Goleen with whom she had an inappropriate and lengthy affair. Kenneth was guilt-ridden by the entire thing and begged Catherine never to tell a soul. Upon hearing all of this, along with how his mother gave birth, Cyril did not know what to say.

Cyril and Catherine arrive in Goleen and make their way to the church. They see the gravestones of Father Monroe and Kenneth, taking a moment to consider what these men’s actions meant to their lives. Catherine makes her way into the church, sitting in the same spot to remember the moment she was cast out as well as the way her family turned on her. A priest appears, expressing welcome, and Catherine takes that as her cue to leave, proud as ever.

Cyril’s mother is 86 and finally getting married. Cyril is happy for her but also deeply envious knowing how different his life might have been. He watches his grandson, George, and George’s new boyfriend Marcus. Cyril is only a few months away from death and his brain is deteriorating from a malignant tumor; although he is happy, he is also nostalgic and delusional, seeing and speaking with specters of the people in his life who are no longer alive.

On the way to the wedding, Cyril converses with the late Charles about the recent referendum to legalize gay marriage. Charles accuses Cyril of being part of the hate, listing off several of his tweets that personally targeted those voting “no.” Cyril defends himself, and Charles points out that bigotry was never meant to win. The car arrives, and Ignac’s family, along with Jack Smoot, can be seen waiting. Cyril waits for his mother inside the registration office along with the rest of Catherine’s family; he walks her down the aisle to a man he is confident will care for her long after he is gone. Cyril realizes that he is truly happy.