Audrey’s Eyes
Ed wants nothing more than to be the apple of Audrey’s eyes. Audrey has emotional issues all tied up in her complicated sexuality, however, and so for much of the novel he is jealous of Simon. Simon is dating Audrey and has access to her body; however, it turns out that he is ironically even more jealous of Ed because Audrey has an emotional investment in him that Simon knows he will never enjoy. Relationships, right? The real irony here, of course, is that if the situation were to become reversed, both men would probably still be jealous of the other.
Clown Street
One of Ed’s missions takes him to a restaurant on Clown Street where he has a particularly unfunny confrontation with his mother. Unless that street was specifically named after a sad clown, this is one ironic convergence of tone because the events which transpire on Clown Street are, arguably perhaps, the most potently devastating for Ed personally in the entire narrative.
Ed’s Father’s Death
The death of Ed’s father takes place before the events of the narrative per se. At first it is mentioned almost in passing and Ed never really dwells on it, but eventually his father’s passing comes to take on a significance well beyond that which it seems was warranted. The ironic part, however, are the circumstances of his death. Tragically ironic, like if a clown died on Clown Street:
“Like I said, my father died about six months ago…He was a furniture deliverer. When he died they found him sitting on an old lounge chair still inside the truck. He was just sitting there, dead and relaxed. There was still so much to unpack, they said. They thought he was sitting in there bludging. His liver gave out.”
Random Acts of Planning
Ed’s upheaval and transformation from useless slacker into purpose-directed agent of change seems to be guided by pure random fate. For reasons he doesn’t understand, he makes the decision to run out and pick up a gun. That’s just the first of several occasions of randomness. Only it turns out that none of it was random.
Contradicting the Title
The final lines of the book are an ironic contradiction of the title:
“I’m not the messenger at all.
I’m the message.”
