Story

Throughout the novel, the author uses his unconventional approach to form and structure to enact his explorations regarding story. On the night that Julián’s wife Verónica fails to come home “from her drawing class,” Julián finds himself concocting an endless string of stories to either explain her absence, comfort his stepdaughter, or distract himself from his own distress (14). He revisits the stories that shaped his relationship with Karla and that began his relationship with Verónica. He drifts into reminiscences of his childhood. He invents scenes of Verónica changing a flat tire on the side of a highway, driving her pregnant friend to the hospital, and later of her having sex with her drawing instructor. Because Julián’s mind becomes so preoccupied by these various storied reminiscences and fabrications, the narrative structure is in turn yanked between scenes of Juli...