By employing Max as the narrator of Journey to an 800 Number, Konigsburg reinforces her theme, choosing a personal, uniqu e voice rather than anonymous third-person narration.

Max tells his story as if he were talking out loud, using sentence fragments, slang, and sarcasm. His often humorous, colorful descriptions reveal Konigsburg's symbolic intentions. For instance, when Max travels south to meet his father—significantly leaving the crowded, urban environment of the northeast for the lazy, sprawling space of Texas—he immediately encounters heat and humidity so thick that he says, "I felt that I was breathing mayonnaise."

Although he tries to resist the heat by refusing to take off his school jacket, Max gradually adapts to the southern climate, just as he eventually allows his father's easy-going warmth and affection to envelop him.

Konigsburg begins the book with background information on the main characters, establishes...