comment on structure

The novel is divided into a prologue and twenty-six numbered sections. These sections cannot honestly be called chapters, though for simplicity they are, because they run together and often begin on the same page on which the last section ended. The book is very short, therefore the sections are also extremely short. The book takes place over a number of years, beginning with Mrs. Paley's first few years of teaching after graduation from college and through her early years teaching at the Laboratory Schools of the University of Chicago.