The Turning: Family Summary & Analysis

Leaper wakes up at four in the morning, loads his car with surfing gear, and sets off for White Point. Once out of the city, he pulls over to sleep in the back for a few hours. Leaper’s home is a mess, and he has been drinking in seclusion for some time; he has broken his own TV, too. Leaper reflects on why he is going to White Point. He feels that he has to leave the city, but is not sure what draws him there, either. Leaper considers his family: he is Max’s brother, Frank. Leaper has never met Max’s wife or daughters, and is far from excited about seeing Max. Nevertheless, Leaper thinks that surfing will be good for him, and is sober for the first time in days, and so he resolves to continue on to White Point.

After two more hours of driving, White Point comes into view. Leaper is hungry but decides not to stop for breakfast. He drives past the bait shop his father used to own and heads toward the beach. No other cars are parked nearby, but he sees one surfer out already. Leaper gets out and puts his wetsuit on. He sees the caravan park water tower and reflects on his childhood there, where Max and his family still live. Leaper needs to urinate, but he is too tired to take the suit off again and, scared of attracting sharks by urinating in the ocean, just does it where he stands, bringing back memories of defecating himself at school. He sees that an osprey has nested in the water tower, a reminder of how long he has been gone. Leaper thinks about his childhood, his gift for football, and the way he was bullied by Max and other children.

Leaper takes his board and swims out past the reef, reaching the other surfer: Max. They greet each other tersely. Max has visibly aged and asks Leaper how he is. Max angrily expresses his disappointment—and resentment—at both Leaper’s success and downfall in professional sports. As they surf, Leaper reflects on how Max treated him in childhood, and the way he tried to interpret Max’s cruelty as an expression of brotherly love. Their trip to see their father, when Max buried him in the sand, led to them living in White Point permanently: their mother never came back for the two of them. Leaper did not come back for their father’s funeral; their father never loved Leaper and let it show. Leaper is torn between his desire to confront Max and his despair that it will achieve anything, either in their relationship or for his own wellbeing.

Leaper fumbles a big wave, badly skinning his limbs. Max criticizes him, and quickly starts to berate him for walking away from his career. Max has no tolerance for Leaper’s excuses; he is both resentful that Leaper achieved success and that he threw it away. Leaper, too, is disappointed in himself, but also understands—and expresses—that Max is talking about himself and his own failures, too. Thinking about what happened to his career, Leaper concludes that his talent was connected to a free, unselfconscious attitude towards football; once he started to care about what other players, the coach, the media, and fans thought, he choked, losing his ability to play at all, let alone well. He admits to himself that he is in White Point for the same reason: to try to show Max that he does not care what Max thinks of him, and in doing so revealing just how much he does care.

Despite his conclusions, Leaper wants to see Max’s his home and to meet his family. He asks Max to tell him about his wife and learns Raelene’s name. Max, however, is resistant, telling him not to come over. Leaper asks Max why he is not on the fishing boat, and Max admits that he was fired, saying “That’s women for ya.” Leaper is struck by how uncharacteristically fragile Max seems. He considers going to meet Raelene anyways, to satisfy his curiosity and defy Max, but questions why he should even bother. He wonders if he really wants to know her, or if he just wants to satisfy a perverse curiosity about the kind of woman that could marry a “bastard” like his brother.

Leaper’s reflections are interrupted by a sudden movement. Max is pulled underwater and the water fills with blood: a shark has attacked him, he realizes. Max comes back up, clinging to his surfboard. Leaper is frozen until Max calls out to him. He paddles over and tries to pull Max onto his surfboard, but Max refuses to let go of his own. Leaper starts pulling Max back to shore, with difficulty. He realizes that the shark bit Max’s leg off: it is only still attached, barely, by the remains of his wetsuit. Max keeps kicking and struggling, making it more difficult for Leaper to move him.

Leaper gets off his own surfboard and lifts Max onto it. As he tries to move the two of them to shore, Leaper tells Max why he lost his ability to play football: it was because of Max. Leaper tells him that every time he froze on the field, he felt Max “lurking at the back of [his] mind,” taunting and threatening him. As Leaper maneuvers the surfboard so that they can ride the swell back to the shore, Max goes limp. The wave crashes over them, pushing them down into the reef, but Leaper keeps holding tightly onto Max, “for longer than he should have.”