Structure

The book is a series of short essays on a variety of topics, focusing on different aspects of everyday life – objects, feelings, experiences. They are grouped under monthly headings – September, October, November – and are written with the atmosphere and mood of autumn very apparently in the author’s mind. Each section is prefaced with a letter to the author’s unborn child apparently written at the end of the month before – September is prefaced with a letter written at the end of August, October prefaced by a letter written at the end of September, and so on.

There is, ultimately, a sense of collage about the combination of essays and letters, that overall meaning and authorial intention emerges as a result of consideration of the collection as a whole, rather than from consideration of a single narrative or thematic line. There is no one journey of transformation...