The narrative structure of Beyond the Reef is designed as a flashback, with an unusual twist. Strasser begins his novel by introducing the reader to a former period in the life of his protagonist Chris Cooper. This introduction only extends over a few sentences and yet it provides major pieces of information about the family and social background of Chris. The plot begins when he is seventeen and it further develops as a recollection of his life in the past five years. These years are delineated in a chronological sequence without any time-shifts. The frame work of the plot, however, makes use of time alteration.

Whereas at the beginning of the text the author presents his narrator as somebody living in a broke financial situation with his father, he closes the frame by describing Chris and his family as leading a very different life.

They are...