Structure

The structure of the book is non-linear, shifting between a present-tense account of the burglary and Crosley’s subsequent obsessive efforts to retrieve her stolen jewelry and past-tense recollections of her friendship with Russell. This fragmented chronology mirrors the disorientation of grief and reflects how loss disrupts the ordinary relationship between time and meaning. Rather than presenting events in the order they occurred, the memoir is organized according to emotional significance. Episodes are grouped thematically or symbolically, rather than sequentially, allowing Crosley to explore the complexity of her feelings without being bound by linear narrative conventions.

The primary structural threads of the theft of the jewelry and the story of Crosley’s relationship with Russell, unfold in tandem but are rarely placed in temporal relation to each other. Instead, they function as emotional parallels. The present-tense narrative of the burglary and its aftermath gives shape to Crosley...