Context Is Everything
It’s strange how the passage of time can lend a brand new context to a simple metaphorical description. In the wake of the brutal, heartless murder of Tamar Rice by a cop who should never have been given a gun, the following observation takes on a much darker tone:
“Every morning he would poke his head out the window and take aim at the ground below with a pistol, like a child playing with a toy. But I was certain that what he was holding was a real gun.”
Character Observation
All of these stories in this collection are told by first-person narrators. And most of these first-person narrators are offering second-hand descriptions of other characters. They are observational by nature and metaphorical by choice:
“It turned out that Mrs. Ellison—that was the name of the house’s owner—looked like a walking corpse.”
The Poet and the Sister
Of all the career paths available throughout history, one has to figure that the desire to become a poet must still rank pretty high on the list of those causing family members and friends to shake their heads. One of the stories revolves around poetry, plagiarism, and not becoming a poet:
“I know that Joshua liked writing poetry, but I also know that he was just plain stupid. Not like Cathy, his older sister. When she got done with middle school, she was already able to stand on her own two feet.”
Self-Description
To suggest that these stories center around self-centered people is not necessarily an insult. When every story is being told through the perspective of a single character, one has to expect at least a certain amount of hyperbolic self-centering similes:
“After the exam, I felt as if I’d been hit in the head by a sledgehammer, and my whole body felt as if it were engulfed in flames.”
The Lonely
One of the themes which permeates throughout the collection is that of the loneliness of these observant neighbors of Bloomington. What is really fascinating is the myriad means by which the author is able to convey the essence of loneliness, even to the point of gentle insertion of easily overlooked metaphorical imagery:
“Over time, once we were well into autumn and the days had grown even shorter, and strong winds had become a regular occurrence, as had lightning and thunderstorms, I set about killing the lonely hours by playing telephone.”
