A Book of Metaphors
This is a book that is loaded with the use of metaphorical imagery. The fun begins almost immediately: with the second line of the opening paragraph of the first page.
“I remember the day I found out my mother was head sick. She wore worry on her wrists as she tied the remaining piece of elastic to the base of the old ice cream container.”
Backyards
The backyard is an important setting in the novel. Throughout the course of the narrative several scenes are set in the backyard that collectively add up to something symbolic going on. The mystery of the metaphor is cleared up near the end:
“It’s an odd thing, a backyard, a little strip of nature, a little reminder of the rest of it, elsewhere. A little piece of earth – a garden, a few trees, a clothesline and a fire pit maybe. Somewhere for the sun to hide.”
Like the Sun Coming Out
The narrator and Billy enjoy going cloud busting down at the beach. This information sets up the use of this pastime as a metaphor for character description later on:
“Samuel was much like a cloud buster. Letting in the sun, some hope, the rainbow had been their friendship.”
Metaphor as Self-Revelation
The very nature of first-person narration is constructed for the efficient use of metaphor as self-revelation. The phrase “I am” can be completed using an almost infinite variety of imagery gleaned from direct metaphor or one can “like” for the purpose of facilitating a simile:
“I am invisible, I am earth, I am sand.”
Aussie Cops are Different
Australian police apparently are quite different from American cops. At least, if the metaphorical imagery is to be taken at face value as a representation of a literal event:
“…they leant over and without words stole Charlie’s smile. They waltzed him to a car like dance partners, lowering him under the doorframe to make sure he didn’t bump his head.”
