Outlander Book Club: Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone Chapter 20 breakdown

Claire and Jamie talk about Frank in Outlander Book 9, Chapter 20

Outlander Book 9, Chapter 20 reminds us of how important on-page conversations actually are. Don’t let the readers assume something has or hasn’t happened.

It’s a quiet chapter at first, with Claire getting some peace for herself. She heads to her garden, which is now “Malva’s Garden,” and I love that she honors the loss of this life in this space. It’s only to herself, but it means a lot. After all, Malva was a victim of time and circumstance, and I will always believe that.

The chapter later moves on to one about Frank. It turns out that Claire seems not to have mentioned anything about how Frank resembled Black Jack Randall at all. That doesn’t make sense to me, and the chapter makes it clear that discussions need to happen on-page.

One of the problems I have with Diana Gabaldon’s writing is that she allows a lot to happen off-page and then believes that readers should assume or infer things have happened. However, we could assume that a conversation about how Frank and Black Jack Randall looked so similar would have happened, and it’s clear that Jamie has no idea.

The chapter seems to foreshadow on thing, and I’ll get to that in the foreshadowing section. As for the adaptation, I would like to see this conversation take place. I think we might, and I’ll get to my thoughts on that in the adaptation section.

Let’s dive into Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone Chapter 20.