comment on structure

Circle of Friends is divided into 20 chapters of varying lengths. The chapters are numbered but do not have titles.

The first chapter takes place when Benny and Eve are 10 years old. Beginning with Chapter 2, the story moves forward to 1957 when the girls are around 18 years of age and preparing to leave their third-level school -- the equivalent of high school in the United States -- and enter university. The remainder of the plot takes place over a period of just under a year as the students finish their first year of school and prepare to begin the second.