In the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of The Westing Game, everything gets more confusing. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Westing Game.
Chapter Nineteen: Odd Relatives / Chapter Twenty: Confessions
SWEET MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, THIS BOOK IS CRUEL.
- And yet I must admit that this is some of the most fun I’ve had doing Mark Reads for y’all. IT’S A GIANT GAME OF CLUE AND IT’S A CONVOLUTED MURDER MYSTERY oh and there’s heartbreak.
- Going back over this, I’m slightly wrong about my claim that most of these people aren’t going to be able to be friends after this. Obviously, Flora and Turtle have a BEAUTIFUL relationship. But Sandy and Judge Ford understand one another and have gotten along very well this whole time. Judge Ford is also learning to recognize when she says things to Sandy that might seem insensitive to him. Theo and Doug are clearly still friends, and Jake is friendly with Madame Hoo. Well, that also might drive him and Grace apart if he is indeed attracted to her, but I can’t really tell if that’s the case just yet.
- Crow. Crow. Holy shit, we learn SO MUCH MORE ABOUT HER, and she’s easily one of the most complex characters in this whole novel. She’s an obsessive person, but we knew that from her dedication towards her… well, I don’t know that she picks any sort of denomination for her Christianity. She actually reminds me of my own mother’s fire-and-brimstone sort of Christianity that wasn’t attached to a church but was certainly full of enough certainty that I was going to Hell.
- But her past is finally revealed here as the private investigator Judge Ford hired is able to come up with some of her own record. I’m guessing that her alcoholism and homelessness began after her husband divorced her? There’s no timeline listed, but I think it’s easy to put it together from the evidence. She started the Good Salvation Soup Kitchen only after she became sober, and I believe that hasn’t been open very long. Regardless, Raskin clearly thought this wasn’t sad enough.
- Crow manages to pass along another set of clues to Angela, though it’s by mistake. Clearly the letter wasn’t meant for her. Oh god, I haven’t figured any of this out yet either!
- WINDKLOPPEL. ARE YOU SERIOUS. GRACE IS RELATED TO CROW. That name seems so rare that there’s no way they’re not related. So Grace is perhaps Windy’s daughter??? I AM SO LOST.
- SYDELLE PULASKI IS THE MISTAKE. I WAS RIGHT, BUT THAT DIDN’T HELP ME FEEL PREPARED. Holy shit, either Westing made the mistake in getting the wrong Pulaski in the house, or it was Otis’s fault when he contacted the wrong Pulaski. THIS FEELS HUGE.
- And yet, I still don’t understand the connection. Yet.
- What the hell is in that rooming house where Otis Amber spent all of Thursday? Y’all, this book is so unfair!!! I have never felt so completely at the whims of a work of fiction in my entire life.
- Oh, Theo. You tried to make an explosive after someone set off three bombs in your apartment building? That has to be the least smart thing anyone has done in this book.
- So, chapter twenty is called “Confessions,” and it references George Theodorakis’s confession to Judge Ford about his relationship with Violet Westing. Now, I know I’m repeating what I said at the end of the video for chapter twenty, but I’m wondering if Judge Ford and Sandy’s approach to this mystery is correct. They’re still the only heirs who are convinced that the Westing Game is an act of revenge. However, as much as I want to question everything presented to me, I think they might be right. What little we’ve learned about Sam Westing from context clues and other characters hasn’t exactly portrayed him in a positive light. Either he or his wife stole from James Hoo. He did something to Judge Ford. And George’s confession reveals that he didn’t really care for Violet Westing because she wasn’t interested in his business.
- Basically, he kind of sounds like an awful person. So, isn’t it possible that he’s getting revenge?
- Oh, right, the person he’d be getting revenge on? The one who caused his daughter’s suicide: his wife.
- WHO WOULD HAVE TO STILL BE ALIVE IN ORDER TO BE A PART OF THE WESTING GAME.
- OH.
- OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS BOOK.
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
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