Frozen Skyscrapers
“When all the skyscrapers freeze they’re going to fall down like September eleventh ... and crush everyone." - Roberto (Part I)
This simile, spoken by the young student the narrator is tutoring, highlights the important danger of global warming. A major element of this novel is a warning against environmental pollution, and by equating environmental disaster with acts of terrorism, the author is harshly condemning environmental neglect.
A Childhood Snow Day
“Emerging from the train, I found it was fully night, the air excited by foreboding and something else, something like the feel of a childhood snow day when time was emancipated from institutions, when the snow seemed like a technology for defeating time, or like defeated time itself falling from the sky, each glittering ice particle an instant gifted back from your routine.” (Part I)
The night air feels crisp and refreshing to the narrator, like it's giving him precious time back from the mundane routines of life. The simile he chooses to represent this feeling is a childhood snow day, where the weather thwarts the race of life and allows a day of relaxation and carelessness.
A Beaded Curtain
“We turned onto her street and it started to rain, but it felt as if it had already been raining on her street and we’d walked into it, parting it like a beaded curtain.” (Part I)
This sentence occurs after the narrator muses about alternate realities, where only very small elements are different, which is one of the novel's major themes. This sentence, relating that the narrator notices a sudden change of weather that doesn't seem sudden, might be implying that he has undergone one of his reality shifts without realizing it, a likelihood that isn't far-fetched considering the makeup of this novel.
A Painting from the Past
“... she’d painted a portrait from a contemporary photograph and then somehow distressed it— I couldn’t understand her reluctant explanations of her process—so that it was networked with fine cracks, making it appear like a painting from the past.” (Part I)
The narrator is surprised to see that Alena's art is actually quite good. This particular painting is described as looking "like a painting from the past," highlighting Alena's artistic talent and technique while throwing in a bit of pre-technology nostalgia.
An Elementary School Villain
“He was lying on the couch streaming The Wire on his laptop with two pink tissues issuing from his nostrils like a villain’s mustache in an elementary school play.” (Part I)
This sentence describes Jon, who has just delivered the news to the narrator that Alena will soon grow tired of him. This proclamation might have made Jon seem like a bad guy, or at least somewhat malicious, but this simile makes the reader realize that Jon's statement was not out of ill will: he looks like a comical villain from an elementary school play, meaning he looks somewhat evil but is in fact nothing of the sort.
