Storytelling

The theme of storytelling in the novel operates as both a structural and thematic axis, shaping the reader’s experience while also reflecting Girtle’s attempts to impose coherence on the characters’ lives. Storytelling in this context is a contested process shaped by gaps in memory, failures of language, and conflicting perspectives. Nowhere is this more evident than in the character of Girtle, whose narration frames the events of the novel. As an elderly woman looking back on the events of a single day decades earlier, Girtle’s storytelling is unreliable, skewed by the distance of time and the distance imposed by her eccentric viewpoint. Her narration is fragmented, digressive, and marked by frequent inconsistencies in naming and perspective. This unreliability reflects Girtle’s position as a marginal observer: socially awkward, emotionally stunted, and excluded from direct participation in events. Girtle imagines that a helper will...