Authorship

Authorship is one of the central themes of Universality, and the novel repeatedly interrogates how authority, legitimacy, and visibility are constructed through the act of writing. The structure itself stages a gradual revelation: what at first appears to be an objective, trustworthy account is later reframed as a calculated act of self-promotion. The novel’s shifting modes of narration and focalization illustrate how authorship is always mediated and contested.

The opening section, which takes up nearly a third of the novel, adopts a journalistic style. The prose style creates the impression of factual accuracy. The reader encounters events through a voice that appears informed and reliable, although there are occasional lapses, especially in descriptions of Lenny and Spencer, that hint at the vested interests that are later revealed. The opening section mimics the conventions of newspaper reportage, where an implied objectivity governs both the tone and...