Comment on structure

The overarching structure of Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between is inspired by the list that Clare makes for herself and Aidan at the start of the novel. Because Clare finds herself on a threshold between the past and the future, she has designed the evening’s list of activities as a way to both memorialize and say goodbye to the people and the places that she loves. The list is at once “a nostalgia tour, a journey into the past,” and “a walk down memory lane” (6). It is also a “plan for their last night together” that Clare hopes will “be the one thing she [can] control” (11). The author therefore structures the narrative around the list in order to enact its significance to Clare’s character. The list, and thus the overarching narrative structure, form, and progression lend Clare and Aidan’s otherwise unpredictable final hours together an illusory sense of order.