Monkey Beach

The closing of Monkey Beach in Part 3 and Part 4 weaves major threads of the novel together, discussing Jimmy’s fate as well as Lisa’s attempt to come to terms with her spiritual gifts. Clues about Jimmy come as a revelation, once Lisa discovers the note from Karaoke that suggests Josh had gotten her pregnant. Lisa’s intuition, coupled with her memory that Jimmy had told her he was going on a fishing trip with Josh “[t]o make things right,” leads her to realize that Jimmy is motivated by revenge (39). This is confirmed in the vision she has at Monkey Beach in which she sees Jimmy attacking Josh and pushing him overboard. Thus, the novel explains part of the mystery of Jimmy’s disappearance with which it had opened. The novel never directly divulges what has happed to Jimmy himself, though there are strong implications that he has died. This link is suggested by the last line of the novel, “[i]n the distance, I hear the sound of a speedboat,” which repeats a line from earlier, just after Mick’s corpse was found, “ “[i]n the distance, the sound of a speedboat” (374, 135).

The closing sections also examine Lisa’s spiritual capabilities and her attempts to come to terms with them. She studies the shape-shifting ogress T’sonoqua for her schoolwork, nothing that T’sonoqua “is not as famous as B’gwus” but has “hands that grip you [...] as strong as a man’s” (337). T’sonoqua echoes Lisa herself, in some ways. The ogress is a woman with capabilities that are not well known or understood, but nevertheless powerful. Thus, her choice to write about T’sonoqua for school represents her attempt to understand herself as well.

Once Lisa arrives at Monkey Beach, the narrative becomes almost hallucinatory, as she experiences visions of the ghosts of Ma-ma-oo, Mick, and others as she nearly drowns. She shows her bond with Jimmy and her determination to solve the mystery of his fate, asking the ghost of Ma-ma-oo about him. She urges Lisa not to worry about him, especially because it will harm her. Lisa’s attempts to understand her gifts culminate in a comment from Ma-ma-oo, who warns her, “[y]ou have a dangerous gift […] like oxasuli. Unless you know how to use it, it will you” (371). Ma-ma-oo is Lisa’s most trusted advisor, and so the advice sticks. After that point, Lisa reemerges from the water, ultimately remaining safe and whole on the sands of Monkey Beach.