The Turning: Small Mercies Summary & Analysis

Peter Dyson, a husband and father of a four-year-old son, comes home to find that his wife (Sophie) has committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in their garage. After the funeral, Dyson has a breakdown, drinking to excess, losing his friends, and even sleeping with one of his friends’ wives. After the last incident, Dyson pulls himself together; he intends to stay in Fremantle, where he lives, until his son Ricky finishes kindergarten. This plan is foiled by the onset of winter, and the overwhelming smell of sheep being loaded onto ships at the port. Even swimming at the public pool now revolts him. In the spring, feeling increasingly unstable, he moves out of the city with Ricky and into his mother’s old house in Angelus. Though Dyson has long put Angelus behind him and has no close contacts left there, the change of scenery provides stability for the family.

Dyson considers looking for work, primarily to ease himself back into social life. (His wife, Sophie, suffered from severe postpartum depression, and Dyson had to leave his full-time job to care for her.) All the same, Dyson worries about running into people from his past. Taking Ricky to his first day of school, he is hailed by an older woman with a young girl. The woman’s name is Marjorie Keenan, and she introduces the child, Sky. Dyson used to be very close with the Keenans, though it’s not yet clear exactly how. Soon, Marjorie invites them over for dinner. At the Keenans’, Dyson is reunited with her husband, Don, who used to be his football coach. The Keenans’ explain that Sky is their granddaughter; their daughter Fay, with whom Dyson was once close, is a recovering addict.

Dyson and Fay Keenan were lovers throughout high school; their relationship, however, was tempestuous and often toxic. Despite their frequent conflicts, the Keenan family were like a second home to Dyson, whose own father died young. Eventually their relationship disintegrated, although they had a brief, illicit reunion at a Christmas party in the city years ago. Fay later tried to contact Dyson in the throes of her addiction, but he did not respond. The Keenans inform Dyson that Fay is coming back to Angelus soon and ask him to be there to support her as she recovers. While they love her, the Keenans are deeply resentful of what she has put them through, too, Don especially. Dyson, however, is disturbed; he feels too fragile to see Fay again and worries about her eventual arrival.

Ricky begins to make friends in Angelus. Hoping to facilitate one such friendship with a boy named Jared, Dyson takes them to a bridge where one can watch traffic pass overhead. The bridge, however, is special to him as a place he and Fay once shared. Coming back home that evening, Dyson finds Fay waiting for them, smoking a cigarette on his porch. They talk about their respective troubles, awkwardly, and Fay asks Dyson for his support as a friend. Dyson is unsure, feeling too unstable himself to support someone like Fay. Nevertheless, he sees her around town. Fay is struggling to live with her parents, who are angry and controlling as well as loving and supportive. Dyson feels guilty that he is not doing more for Fay; in particular, he feels he is letting the Keenans down, who have done so much for him.

Dyson continues to wrestle with his worry and his guilt, both over Fay and Sophie. Sometimes, he wonders if the reason he married Sophie is because she was so unlike the erratic and emotional Fay: stable, steady, and serious, until her depression set in. Because of this, Dyson feels responsible for her suicide. Sitting by the fire and turning over these ideas, Dyson awakens to realize that he has dozed off, overslept, and failed to pick Ricky up from school. Luckily, Fay has brought him home in the rain. He invites Fay and Sky in. Dyson drives Fay and Sky home, both because of the rain and because Fay has lost her driver’s license. Fay promises not to tell her parents that Dyson left Ricky in the rain and spoil their image of him as a responsible father.

Dyson and Ricky continue to settle into the town. Dyson takes Ricky to the cliffs to whale watch, and plays football with him. They run into Don, who expresses his frustration with Fay, while also affirming his love for her.

Late that night, Fay comes to visit Dyson. He is surprised, but invites her in, making her a cup of coffee. She informs him that she has skipped her second Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a row that night, and that she feels she has no one to turn to except him. Her parents grasped her agitation and worried that she was going to go out in search of drugs, but Don happily drove her to Dyson’s. Visibly unstable, Fay wants Dyson to tell her about Sophie, which he refuses to do. She asks if she can trust him, and he does not answer, telling her he does not know. When he asks her what she really wants from him, she expresses her desire for him. Dyson does not reciprocate and feels increasingly uncomfortable. Fay voices her despair at having come back to Angelus, which she only did for the sake of her daughter.

Fay becomes angry, telling Dyson he does not know what she has been through and rejecting his assertions that Marjorie and Don will support her. She becomes increasingly distraught, begging him for sex and confessing the humiliation she feels at his lack of a response. Fay acknowledges that, despite their romance, they were never truly friends. She then directly expresses her jealousy: her parents’ adoration of Dyson meant that his return drew more attention than her own. Despite this, she was happy to see him, but did not expect him to reject her advances like this. Fay reveals a secret she and Dyson have kept from her Catholic parents: she became pregnant when they were 17, and had an abortion paid for by Dyson’s mother. If the Keenans knew about this, they would lose all respect for Dyson, which would hurt him greatly.

Fay suggests to Dyson that her teenage abortion precipitated her struggles with addiction. She threatens to go down to the port in search of drugs and asks him how he would feel being responsible for her “ruin” once again. Dyson demurs, refusing to answer directly. Their conversation is then interrupted by a log falling out of the fireplace. By the time Dyson has put it back, Fay has calmed down. She asks if “that’s a no, then?” and when Dyson reaffirms that he will not sleep with her, she asks if he thinks she would really tell her parents about her abortion. He does not think she would, because she loves them and her daughter. Fay answers noncommittally and leaves without another word, before Dyson turns around from the fire.