Bedtime Stories

The contrasting approaches to bedtime stories underscore the novel’s exploration of narrative control and authorship. Sam’s tendency to invent his own bedtime stories contrasts with the narrator’s initial reliance on books authored by others, symbolizing their differing relationships to authorship and control. Sam’s stories reflect creativity and authority, positioning him as the orchestrator of narrative, much as he directs their marriage. The narrator’s early dependence on prewritten tales mirrors her passivity and adherence to structures created by others.

Big Book of Anti-Jokes

The Big Book of Anti-Jokes functions as a symbol of the narrator’s attempt to impose humor and absurdity onto a life marked by trauma and loss. It gestures toward a tragicomic perspective, suggesting that she is trying to process betrayal, illness, and upheaval with a mix of wit and detachment. However, within the novel, the effect falls...