A Good House: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Bonnie Burnard

First published: 1999

Genre: Novel

Locale: Ontario, Canada

Plot: Family saga

Time: 1949–1997 (1949; 1952; 1955; 1956; 1963; 1970; 1977; 1986; 1995; 1997)

Bill Chambers, the patriarch in the story. In 1949, at the novel's start, he is working in the hardware store his father had bought an interest in. He married Sylvia Ferguson in 1936 and enlisted for World War II, during which he lost three fingers of his right hand, forcing him to become left-handed. A reliable and steady man, if not handsome or dashing, he is slightly below average height. He has three children with Sylvia. After her death, he marries the hardware store's bookkeeper, Margaret Kemp. His decline into old age is not a graceful one.

Sylvia Ferguson Chambers, marries Bill Chambers when she is pregnant with their first child, Patrick. A homemaker, housewife, and nurturing mother and wife, she is a benevolent and caring spirit, slight and free, with blue eyes. She is a good mimic, amusing her children. She gets sick with cancer at age 40 in early 1955, dying in July, doing her best to ensure that her children are strong and know they are loved.

Patrick Chambers, Sylvia and Bill's oldest child. He is quiet and unrevealing of his emotions, broad and of Bill's stature, but with Sylvia's blue eyes. He blames himself for the childhood accident that injured his sister Daphne. He heads to Western University (London, Ontario) with classmate Murray McFarlane, working at the McFarlane family feed mill in summers. He later marries and becomes a lawyer in London, with Murray's father having funded his education, although he must pay Mr. McFarlane back for the law school payments. He is the only person, other than Daphne, who knows who is the father of Daphne's two children.

Daphne Chambers, the Chambers' second child, born three years after Patrick, is in childhood cheerful and fearless. She is like Sylvia with blue eyes, sandy hair, and a widow's peak. When Murray, the Chambers' classmate and childhood friend, sets up a circus in the neighborhood, he picks Daphne to do the trapeze. She falls onto the single mattress set up as a cushion by Patrick, and breaks her wrist and jaw. Her jaw heals askew, having a lasting effect on her looks and her outlook on life. She becomes a nurse. She rejects Murray in 1970 as a marriage partner, but gets pregnant by him as she wants a child. Daughter Maggie is born. Later, still rejecting him for an overt relationship, she has a second child with him, Jill. At her daughter Maggie's wedding to a man named Josh, Murray's presence walking down the aisle (engineered by Patrick) makes it clear that he is the father.

Paul Chambers, the last of Bill and Sylvia's children, one year younger than Daphne. He is more outgoing than Patrick, cheerful, loving, and knowing what he wants in life. He ends up taller than the other Chambers family members, ha ndsome, with long lashes and gray-green eyes. Like his mother, he's a good mimic. He works at McFarlane's feed mill sometimes, like Patrick, meets Andy, a farmer's daughter and they fall in love and marry young, successfully operating Andy's father's extensive farm. Later, they operate the feed mill as well. The father of three children, the youngest of which, Meagan (Meg) is developmentally disabled and must be sent to a group home. In his forties Paul becomes interested in his family history, both of the Fergusons and the Chambers. In 1986 when he and Andy drive in their farm truck to collect Meg, they wind up in a tragic accident.

Margaret Kemp Chambers, becomes Bill Chambers' second wife after Sylvia dies. She was the bookkeeper at the hardware store where Bill worked, before moving for more pay to the pharmacy across the street. Tall, long-legged, plain, and ig-breasted, she comes to the Chambers house to help with housework during Sylvia's final weeks. She bathes and cares for Sylvia while the family eats. Sylvia asks her to look after the kids when she (Sylvia) is no longer able to. She marries Bill at age 41 in early February 1956, and gets pregnant that spring. There are hints that she had an unhappy childhood and is amazed at her new family life. Her baby is named Sarah (Sally). Always seeking “to smooth things over” in the family, working to keep the family happy, she devotes herself to the full Chambers family, although Patrick continues to resent her. Ultimately, in old age, Bill becomes tremendously difficult to live with.

Murray McFarlane, a friend of the Chambers family from childhood onward, beginning when he brings together neighborhood kids in the summer of 1952 to put on a circus act, which ends abruptly with Daphne's injury. He is in Patrick's grade at school; tall, gangly, and uncoordinated. The only child of older, wealthy, devoutly Anglican parents who own the feed mill, he hangs out more and more with the Chambers family rather than his inattentive (though not unkind) parents. He rooms off-campus with Patrick at college in London, Ontario. He has an early affair with Daphne, later marrying a fellow journalist, Charlotte. Daphne rejects his offer to leave his wife and marry; she only wants him as a lover and anonymous father of her kids. So he stays married to Charlotte longer than he would have otherwise. He gives money to Patrick to fund the care of Daphne's daughters. His work as a journalist takes him around the globe.

Andrea (“Andy”) Sparling Chambers, Paul's girlfriend and then his wife. They fall in love as teenagers and remain committed to each other, a perfect team even though she is very small, under five feet, and Paul is much taller. She lives on her family's farm. After they marry when she is 19, they have three children, Neil, Krissy, and Meagan (Meg), who is born in 1963 and is moved into a group home as a teenager because she is developmentally and emotionally disabled, prone to rages and inappropriate behavior, and is very large and hard to handle. Andy is bursting with energy, but ultimately must face tragedy, although she seeks to bear it as best she can.

Charlotte, Murray's first wife, whom he married in October 1962. She is not family- or child-oriented, and is focused on her own success as a TV journalist in Toronto. She looks down on the Chambers family. It turns out that before their marriage she had had surgery to prevent her being able to get pregnant. Murray had wanted kids. By 1977, at age 40, she has a lover, Mike, “a writer on her news team.” She and Murray live apart but don't divorce until later when Murray falls in love with Kate.

Mary Wilson Chambers, Patrick's wife, whom he marries in 1963. She is blunt and pretty, compared several times to Jackie Kennedy in looks. They have three children, Stephen, John, and another in 1970. They live in London, Ontario, where Patrick practices law, and she is unconventional for the time, in filling their house with antiques and vintage furniture, rather than new things. Ultimately she and Patrick divorce.

Mr. and Mrs. McFarlane, Murray's parents, older than other parents, and somewhat remote. Mrs. McFarlane suffers from migraines and more or less leaves Murray to do what he wants. She and her husband, Alex McFarlane, are wealthy, owning the feed mill as well as much land and real estate. Mr. McFarlane financially supports Patrick through college (first Chambers to go to college). He then offers to lend Patrick the money for law school, which Patrick repays him for. Both McFarlanes die in 1970.

Sarah (Sally) Chambers, Margaret and Bill's daughter, born in later 1956 or early 1957. She gets a college degree in biology and heads west for further study, ultimately electing to be called Sarah instead of Sally and to stay in Va ncouver with Rob, an English software engineer.

Meagan (Meg) Chambers, born in 1963, is the youngest daughter of Paul and Andy, born prematurely and eventually discovered to be severely behaviorally handicapped. She becomes so obstreperous and hard to manage that at last Paul and Andy send her to a group home, from which she periodically gets home visits, also playing hooky and hitchhiking, as well as starting a sexual relationship with another resident of the group home, Matthew. Ultimately, medication will come to settle her down a bit.

Kate, Murray's second wife. She is black. When Bill begins to suffer from dementia, which produces deep antagonism toward his family, she seems able to connect with him.