Genre
Contemporary, realistic fiction
Setting and Context
New York City, present day
Narrator and Point of View
The narrator watches Gerard, an emotionally distant man with retrospective tendencies, following his actions with third-person objectivity, but seemingly from within his own mind.
Tone and Mood
Calm, objective, dispassionate
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Gerard, a handsome yet emotionally detached man. Antagonist: Gerard's complacency and isolation.
Major Conflict
Gerard relives the tragedies of his life while attempting to recreate something good from a former relationship.
Climax
In perhaps one of the least action-packed climaxes in literature, Gerard stands in his study and contemplates the nature of life.
Foreshadowing
When Van Booy vaguely writes, "Gerard loved one woman once, but not Lucy's mother," it foreshadows his reconnection with Laurel on the next page.
Understatement
"The years apart were just years without one another." (3)
Allusions
Gerard imagines Lucy reading a simplified version of the classic novel Black Beauty.
He also, at the very beginning, remembers a line from a poem called "The Second Elegy" by Rainer Maria Rilke, saying, "what is ours floats into the air, like steam from a dish of hot food."
Imagery
Snow imagery pervades the story, representing Gerard's impersonal relationship with the world. A blizzard is in effect for the majority of the narrative.
Paradox
Gerard is relating to people to stave off the feeling of isolation, but he can't stop thinking about death when he does so (for example, when he sees his daughter, he thinks of her mother floating dead in a pool).
Parallelism
Gerard's reconnection with Laurel parallels their first conversation, where they felt like they were catching up although they had only just met.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"...Gerard quickly hands the cashier a few bills." (3)
Personification
"The lights from shopwindows are beckoning." (1)
