We spend some time getting to know Michael in The Space Between Section 6. It’s time to break down the events.
There’s little that we know about Michael Murray, except that he lives in France. He has recently lost his wife, and we get to see how that affects him. This is still a fresh loss, and it’s much harder than the loss of his father.
Breaking down The Space Between Section 6
The section starts with the husband and wife in the cabin with Joan and Michael making comments about Joan as she leaves. There’s an argument about her loss in becoming a bride of Christ when it comes to her sexual life. It think this is something that a lot of people debate when someone says that they want to become a priest, a nun, or a monk. There’s this question about why people would choose to be celibate.
The two also make a comment about farting, and it’s this that leads to Michael walking out. The thought of farting makes Michael think of his late wife, Lily. He thinks about to a funny episode with Lily after she ate garlic eels, and bringing up this memory makes him grieve her.
We get a reminder of how grief can hit us. We can all pretend to be happy, and there are days where we are happy, but then there are moments and days where the sadness takes over. Michael has one of those moments as the memories flood. This loss breaks him, and he is heading back home to a place that he shared with Lily.
I’ve always through that the loss of a spouse and the loss of a child are the two hardest to go through. You shouldn’t have to lose a child—that’s the wrong order. With the loss of a spouse, you’ve lost the person you’ve chosen to do life with. It makes it much harder than the loss of a parent, especially at a younger age. There’s all these promises of the future that can’t happen anymore. At least with parents, you do expect to lose them eventually.
Michael thinks about his brother Ian, though. Ian’s return in time for Ian Murray’s death was good. The two brothers were able to bond over the loss of their wives. While Ian’s loss wasn’t the same as Michael’s, there was a similar grief. Ian didn’t chose to leave Emily. She cast him away, along with her tribe, and that’s somewhat more hurtful than death.
Could this chapter be used in a TV series adaptation?
We would need to get to know Michael more if The Space Between was ever used for a TV show. We have to find a way to get to know all the main characters. The problem with this chapter, like with the Comte’s, is that everything is internalized. The show would need to find a way to adapt this in a way that shows us the events.
The best way would be to have him open up to Joan, but that doesn’t necessarily make sense. Maybe he would find it easier to open up to the married couple, or maybe we could have a flashback of Michael and Young Ian talking about their losses. Either way, the section is needed to give us a chance to know Michael, but it’s not easy to develop.
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