Inner Darkness, Inner Light

The central narrative movement at the core of the narrative – more specifically, the journey of transformation undertaken by Bankson, its central character – is a movement from despair, through joy, to a kind of moral transcendence … in other words, a movement from inner darkness towards inner light. He begins the novel in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, trying to resume what he continues to believe is an existence that’s futile both personally and professionally. Over the course of the narrative, he finds illumination – hope, possibility, opportunity, inspiration – in his relationships with Nell and Fen (particularly Nell), while at the same time finding a kind of love and joy that he never had. That joy is truncated (cut short) by Nell’s death, but that doesn’t stop his inner forward movement: the last chapter of the narrative clearly and vividly portrays...