Therapy
Sasha is seeing a therapist to deal to get the root of her kleptomania as a way to control it and overcome it. A metaphor is used to transform this process into an aesthetic partnership in which the result of the therapy becomes a mystery already solved:
“She and Coz were collaborators, writing a story whose end had already been determined: she would get well.”
A Good Idea is a Good Idea
Sometimes an author will flash upon a metaphorical image that is perfect for the moment be described, but within which contains a nugget of something more. A concept for a future not yet envisioned, perhaps. Or the ability to take a stereotype, tweak it and see within that tweak a stunning vision of the unlimited potential of technology:
“I watch Bennie listen, eyes closed, his Mohawk like a million antennas pricking up from his head.”
The day will come when someone in the future creates a Mohawk-style headgear capable of picking up signals for listening to music, watching video, communication or something. Count on it.
Touching the Real Kitty
A chapter in the form of a magazine article by Jules Jones includes a self-conscious recognition of the power of the metaphor. It is not the only time in the novel that the word “metaphor” actually appears in narration or is spoken by a character. But in this instance—the description of by the author of the article on the moment he believes he has touched the Kitty hidden within—the focus is specifically on the potential for metaphor to be an underwhelming literary tool:
“What a look! What a gaze! Every cheesy metaphor you can fathom comes to mind: sun breaking through clouds, flowers yawning into bloom, the sudden and mystical appearance of a rainbow.”
“Time’s a goon.”
Metaphor is used three times to reference the novel’s title, once each by three different characters: Bosco, Jules and Bennie. (Though, admittedly, Jules—the magazine writer—does not engage the contraction but says that time is a goon.) The metaphor references not just the title of the book, but the concept that time is a bully who gets a real kick out of shoving people around. Time is a jerk, a thug, a mugger, a brute. You know: a goon.
Deja View
The novel’s thematic obsession with time takes a real beating in the continuum in the final pages of the final chapter. The story jumps ahead to a point in the not-too-distant future when a character is overcome by that feeling of having already lived through this moment before. The strange of this sensation pretty much calls out for figurative language and the author really commits:
“Alex looked up at the building, sooty against the lavender sky, and experienced a hot-cold flash of recognition, a shiver of déjà vu, as if he were returning to a place that no longer existed.”
