Chapter 11, "The Last Word" Summary and Analysis

James fondly recalls the intimate moments spent in automobiles riding alone with his father as a child growing up. He recalls trips in the green Studebaker on the way to Mass as an altar boy, in the Crown Victoria listening to him whistle "Beautiful Dreamer" on the way to the football field, in the Air Force staff car in Frankfurt and the Lincoln in Washington. The tune he whistles symbolizes a utopian world he may believe in beyond the real he lives. James recalls with horror the last time in 1980, when his father drives Mary, James and his new wife and baby to Brian's for an Easter egg hunt. The seventy-year-old Joe Carroll shows signs of Alzheimer's that is not diagnosed, but apparent in his angry reactions to James' offer to drive. Suspicion...