Conclusion: The Workings of the Past

Abstract

The city centre explosion which occurs at the centre of Robert McLiam Wilson’s Eureka Street at one level has an almost imperceptible affect on the novel’s plot: the narrative(s) continue to accrue even more carnivaleseque dimensions yet remain at the same time haunted by the residual trauma of violence. At another level, however, the bomb ruptures the novel’s trajectory: lives are sundered and the traumatic aftermath reverberates through the remainder of the book; new characters, such as Francis, with no knowledge or interest in ‘politics’ or ‘history’ are introduced only to be obliterated by the blast, suddenly and fatally ensnared by the violence that previously formed only a backdrop to their everyday lives. As McLiam Wilson (sardonically and caustically) explains ‘Francis was also a sloppy thinker and had no real grasp of history or politics’.¹