Full Breakfast and Awkward Interactions

By Amy

“Everyone was already around the table next morning when Morin arrived, more than a little disheveled. They glanced at him, and Agent Lacoste indicated the seat next to her, where, miraculously for the hungry young agent, there waited a bowl of strong café au lait along with a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and thick-cut toast with jams.”

“Downstairs he found a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and strong coffee.”

This blog keeps changing my grocery shopping list! I’d only ever bought bacon twice and both times were during long vacations overseas. Both my husband and son slept in, so I made myself a full breakfast one Saturday. Like Gamache, I ended up regretting the bacon and wishing I’d had the meal for dinner instead. It was a bit much for me that early in the morning.

The first scene is when Agent Morin comes back to the village after a night spent alone in the hermit’s cabin. The second is the breakfast Gamache eats in the Haida village right before flying to the totems and over the Gwaii Haanas.

In the first scene Agent Morin is the personification of the rookie trying to do the right thing and not appear inexperienced. In the second, Gamache is very aware that he is the outsider in a group of people who weren’t always treated kindly or justly by previous visitors. While he himself respected them, he realized he might be lumped together with people who didn’t share his sensibilities or his ideals.

“The pilot’s deep brown eyes were suspicious, as well they would be, thought Gamache. The arrival of yet another middle-aged white man in a suit was never a good sign. You didn’t have to be Haida to know that.”

I could identify with both Morin and Gamache as they navigated these tricky social situations. I have traveled a bit since I was a child and my parent's home, and later my own, have always been very open and hospitable. I enjoy interacting with different people – it doesn’t mean it’s always comfortable. It’s always easier to be on our own turf, so to speak, where we have the choice of being magnanimous and encouraging as Lacoste was to Morin and Esther was to Gamache.

It’s much harder to be in Morin shoes facing a prickly superior like Beauvoir. The most uncomfortable situation, to me, is facing the Lavinas of the world. She’s beyond prickly. She’s defensive, suspicious, and unwelcoming. She probably has good cause to be, but it’s not easy to begin a social interaction with someone who’s that standoffish. Gamache, who’s always attentive to everyone, even forgot to ask for her name!

“… the young bush pilot looking at her watch. Was her name Lavina? To his embarrassment he realized he’d never asked her.”

The main difference, I think, is perceived superiority. As a junior agent, inexperienced in homicide, as well as younger than the other officers at the table with him, Morin subjected his behavior to their judgement and was found wanting.

“Why didn’t you call?” demanded Beauvoir, tearing his eyes from the carvings to look at Morin.

“Should I have?” He looked stricken, his eyes bouncing among the officers. “I just thought there was nothing we could do until now anyway.”

“He’d longed to call; only a mighty effort had stopped him from dialing the B and B and waking them all up. But he didn’t want to give in to his fear. But he could see by their faces he’d made a mistake.”

“All his life he’d been afraid, and all his life it had marred his judgement. He’d hoped that had stopped, but apparently not.”

We’ve all been there: trying to measure up to a mentor, a professor, a new boss. Sometimes it’s easy to figure out what is wanted, evaluate if the requirements are compatible with our capacities and adjust our behavior to meet expectations. Other times, we miss our cue, misunderstand the requests, or simply don’t comply – either because we lack the means or because it would mean compromising our beliefs and ideals.

Leaders (good ones at any rate) assume responsibility and guide their subordinates while they gain the experience necessary to improve judgement. This is true of parenthood and it is true in any job. Parents, teachers, mentors, older siblings… they are all models of behavior (including how not to behave) and we can profit from their foresight and experience. While it was embarrassing for Morin to discover his action had been interpreted as foolish, instead of brave, he was in a position where minor mistakes were almost expected. That probably accounts for Beauvoir’s prickliness and unwillingness to have him join the team in the first place.

While being a good leader involves assuming responsibility and being a good model and teacher, the subordinate also has a role to play. In this sense, Morin was an easier novice to work with than was Agent Nicole. Her lack of self-worth and defensiveness was so intense that it was hard for her to listen to instructions or learn from her mistakes. Being admonished made her disengage and lick her wounds while justifying herself and ranting against those who criticized her. Morin was the braver soul, in my opinion. He understood his own feelings well and, in the end, instead of retreating, he reached out to make sure that his safety net was still in place.

“That was foolish of you,” said Gamache. He looked stern and his voice was without warmth. Morin instantly reddened. “Never, ever wander on you own into the woods, do you understand? You might have been lost.”

“But you’d find me, wouldn’ you?”

They all knew he would. Gamache had found them once, he’d find them again.

The Chief knows the importance of teaching and mentoring his agents. He has taught the same to Beauvoir and Lacoste – who both become mentors throughout the series, although they all go about it in different ways. Gamache also recognizes the need to allow people room to use their intuition, judgement, and their own personal style of doing things. In A TRICK OF THE LIGHT he makes that clear, both to Lacoste and to Adam Cohen:

“No matter what orders are issued, you must only do what you know to be right. You understand?”

In the scene with the Haida bush pilot, Lavina, although Gamache was an authoritative figure - a Chief Inspector of Homicide - he had no direct authority over her. He also represented a group of people who had, historically, marginalized the Haida. I think she expected him to be condescending or inadequate. I have the feeling that it made him uncomfortable; interactions could shadowed by nuances he wasn’t personally guilty of, but represented all the same.

A quick read though Wikipedia (probably not the best source, but it's the most readily available) shows that the Haida are a fierce, proud people. They were defeated by smallpox, not by the Europeans and North Americans they fought with. It is a measure of their strength that so much of their culture has survived.

Lavina was the most unwelcoming of the Haida I wonder why that is. Having lived in more than once place and experienced more than one culture in my formative years, I can certainly understand her annoyance. Age usually teaches you that lack of knowledge is not the same as lack of compassion or interest. Informing someone kindly is usually better than biting their nose off. Gamache did his best and, while the others were more forgiving, she was the mirror that reflected his blunders.

“So you’re from the Charlottes?”

“I’m from Haida Gwaii,” she said.

“Of course, I’m sorry. Are you with the Eagle clan?”

“Raven.”

“Ah,” said Gamache, and realized he sounded slightly ridiculous, but the young woman beside him didn’t seem to care. She seemed more interested in ignoring him completely.”

A friend, who’s a very vocal advocate about issues I won’t get into here (at the risk of deviating from the topic at hand) once told me that she realizes she comes off as bitter and judgmental. She says she hates my arguments and my concessions. While we share ideals, our approach is different. She says she wants to stay mad and angry and bitter and resentful. She wants to bother people and take them kicking and screaming away from their comfort zone. I obviously don’t feel the same, but I can understand where she’s coming from.

Maybe Lavina’s resentment has a deeper cause we may never find out about. Maybe she was having a bad day. And maybe the Chief was right.

“Gamache wondered if she was channeling Ruth Zardo. Was there one in every pack?”

Quotes from The Brutal Telling and How The Light Gets In.