Time and Truth

In her stories "Taj Mahal" and "Cross Off and Move On" the author explores the distorting effects of time on the individual's evolving sense of the truth. In "Taj Mahal," Emma and her mother Zoe's former companions attempt to reconcile the lived events of their past with Rouse's recent memoir. In "Cross Off and Move On," the narrator works to reconcile her childhood bitterness towards her mother after her cousin's death. In both stories, the author excavates the heart of her character's psychological distress by moving deep within the fragments of their remembered pasts. The more the narrators live within these reminiscences, however, the foggier their senses of the truth become. Through these two stories, Eisenberg illustrates the warping effects of spatial and emotional distance on the exact dimensions of an event. The longer the individual resides within these past experiences, the less distinct...