“A man called Kilkelly, who was as drunk as the rest of them, leaned across the bar and with the drink his friend had paid for in his hand, said, ‘Tell the truth for once now. You stole it, didn’t you? You walked into a church and took it straight off the altar.’”

After eight years of happy marriage, Kilkenny’s remark about the Virgin Mary statue randomly reveals Billy Lovell’s secret crime. However, at this point in the narrative, readers do not know the true origin of the Virgin Mary statue; Kilkenny’s statement surprises Doreen and readers alike. For readers, this twist in Bernadette’s family story begins to hint at why she has decided to distance herself from her family’s history.

“Would the country lay down its foreign wars, its need for health care and education, in order to turn its collective gaze to the splendors of the cod?”

While waiting for Teddy at his ichthyology lab, Tip imagines his father’s disapproving statements about his choice of career. This passage highlights an essential element of Tip’s character arc because for most of Tip’s life, his father Doyle has tried to persuade him into a career in politics. Attending political lectures with Doyle, like the Jesse Jackson one Tip is about attend with Teddy, is a typical method of persuasion that Doyle has used over the years. Hinting implicitly at Tip’s annoyance at Doyle, this scene foreshadows the argument that they will have after the Jesse Jackson lecture.