The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair

Part 3, the final section of the novel, covers the time after Marcus’s book The Harry Quebert Affair has come out, and it deals with the aftermath of truths that become known as a result. The author positions Marcus’s book as a fuse that lights the final explosions revealing the truth behind the deaths of Nola Kellergan, Deborah Cooper, and Luther Caleb (and much later, Chief Pratt). Thus, the inner tripartite structure of the novel (before the writing, during it, and after the publication) symbolically follows the events that lead to exposure of the culprits: Gareth Pratt and Travis Dawn, who committed the murders, Jenny Dawn, who conspired to protect the murderers, and Robert Quinn, who has committed a felony trying to protect his daughter, Jenny.

After the first two parts, the title of the third part, “Writers’ Paradise,” deals not with the inner workings of the writer’s process, but with the concept that the writer “gets to decide the ending of the book” (497). For Harry, the writers’ heaven is Nola never dying but rather coming to meet him so they can elope. For Dicker, writers’ heaven is the final reconstruction of events and reaching the moment of truth and clarity. Within this process, the author finds the possibility for letting go of the past and starting anew. This is primarily significant for the protagonist, Marcus Goldman, who has not just overcome his writer’s block, but has learned valuable lessons in loyalty, human nature, and the act of creation. It is importance for other characters as well: Harry can finally stop waiting for the love of his life and move on, and Travis and Jenny can begin to come to terms with guilt, remorse, and the complex feelings they have for each other. The truth can restore Luther Caleb’s reputation; David Kellergan can lay his daughter to rest; and Nola Kellergan can finally become just a sad and lovely dead girl, and not a specter looming over the town and its inhabitants.

In Chapter 5, Marcus suffers the most devastating blow of his hero’s journey. His book becomes a hit. However, as people learn the truth regarding the death of Nola’s mother, they condemn Marcus’s book as dishonest sensationalism, “a product of the sick imagination of a writer starved of inspiration” (508). As the Somerset librarian Ernie Pinkas states, “[…] nobody is very happy with you here. We’ve been watching you strut all over the newspapers and T.V. for a month now, all of us knowing that what you wrote was a pile of crap” (508). Just as Marcus has started to sink back into his old complacency, this brutal awakening signals that his journey is not complete, and that he has yet to find redemption.

The false reveal is a venerated trope of crime fiction, whereby near the end of the novel a resolution is proposed—and even seemingly accepted, because in most crucial aspects it is in line with the logic of denouement—only to be exposed as incorrect, frequently due to a single circumstance that fails to fit into place. In this case, it is the reality of Louisa Kellergan’s death that breaks the illusion that the sequence of events Marcus has laid out in his book holds true. The protagonist needs to retrace his steps to find the ill-fitting piece of the puzzle and realign the facts, which is what Marcus does with the help of Sergeant Perry Gahalowood.

Another unpleasant revelation for Marcus is the discovery that Harry has not been staying at the Sea Side Motel at all; his visits there were part of an elaborate pretense that Harry orchestrated to cover his tracks. This again briefly brings Harry Quebert into play as a suspect, but as Marcus finally reveals, the truth Harry hides has all to do with his writerly pride and not much to do with the murders. The existence of the second manuscript, The Seagulls of Somerset, this one by Harry Quebert, in the novel plays out as a deux ex machina device—that is, a sudden appearance of something that the author has not prepared us for but that plays a significant role in clearing the situation. Although stealing Caleb’s manuscript deeply problematizes Harry’s character, it positions Marcus and his moral code firmly above his mentor’s, which allows him to achieve redemption by the end of the novel. Additionally, it provides a context for Caleb’s full development into a rounded, positive character, and this, in turn, completes his journey.

By the end of the novel, the initial parallel between Harry Quebert and Marcus Goldman proves to be false, and we find the true analogy of character in Marcus and Caleb. Thus, it is logical and necessary that Marcus will set the situation to rights for Caleb by publishing Harry’s book under his name. Furthermore, Dicker provides an analogy between Luther Caleb and Harry Quebert, creating a triangle of connection: In a Cyrano de Bergerac-type of twist, Caleb corresponds with Nola representing Harry, so that the relationship between Nola and Harry would not have develop as it did without Caleb’s presence and influence. The author positions this as a good and a bad thing, as the three of them experienced the love of a lifetime, but one that ended in tragedy for all of them.

Chapter 4 supplies the readers with answers related to the Kellergans’ life in Alabama. In choosing to position the character of Louisa Kellergan as a victim of disturbed child Nola, Dicker justifies the brutal act of exorcism, which in turn, justifies the further development of Nola’s character. In order to supply the full motivation for his characters, the author choses to portray full chains of actions and reactions in minute details (by combining the mediated narration with the switches back to unmediated past). By observing David Kellergan, Pastor Lewis, and little Nola, we are able to grasp the unalterable sequence of events that ultimately lead to her death. This serves to show us how the act of murder, taken by itself, is never enough to grasp the full context of what has led to it, and it echoes Perry’s words to Marcus: “You need to find out about the victim. And you have to start at the beginning, before the murder. Not at the end. […] You have to find out who the victim was” (117).

In Chapter 2, the author finally reveals the full truth of what has transpired, but as yet it is the truth without context, and therefore, it is not complete. The readers learn who the culprits are, but in true Golden Age mystery fashion, the final chapter will reveal the full explanation behind everyone’s actions. This is when the bare facts acquire meaning and rationale, and the most significant element of the denouement proves to be the motivation behind the crimes.