Point of View

The collection includes twelve short stories. All of the stories are told in the third person, with the exception of the third story: "It’s Not You." The third-person narrator is omniscient. Four stories in the collection feature the couple Sadie and Jack: "The Irish Wedding"; "The Get-Go"; "Two Sad Clowns"; and "Nothing, Darling, Only Darling, Darling." Jack also appears in the story "The Splinter." The Jack and Sadie stories take place in varying times of their relationship. The first story "The Irish Wedding" has Jack and Sadie attending their first wedding together, but they are not married. The collection ends with "Nothing, Darling, Only Darling, Darling" in which Jack and Sadie having recently married and are on their honeymoon.

All of the stories focus on different strains that relationships experience. For "The Irish Wedding," it is Sadie’s experience meeting Jack’s family and...