Structure

The structure of Once More We Saw Stars is mostly straightforward: the book is divided into six sections of nearly equal length, and moves linearly through an approximately year and a half of the author’s life. Anchoring the text on either end are the dramatic events of losing Greta and Harrison’s birth, in an inversion of a traditional coming-of-age narrative (appropriate for a book largely dealing with the fact that Greene's daughter will never come of age). These twin moments of heightened emotion at either end of the book create something like a U-shaped parabola: the security, happiness and well-being of the characters in the book is on a steep descent in the opening pages. It hits bottom and plateaus throughout the middle of the narrative, and finally gathers strength in the final sections with Harrison’s imminent arrival. This structure was very likely borrowed...