Brave enough (Metaphor)
Felix didn’t have many friends. Obviously enough, their number became even less after the trial. No one wanted to associate with a failed journalist whose glory days were over. What was more, even his wife didn’t want to see him. The only one who stayed loyal to him was Woody Townes. It was him who “had the grit and guts.” Woody attended court “every day” although he had to fly “seven hundred kilometers” from Melbourne. Any fight Felix had, Woody was “always” by his side. And when he “endured the whacking from the press” Felix found his old friend where he knew the man would be.
Bad choice (Metaphor)
Felix knew that there would be no one to help him, but still it was a hard blow. None of his old mates were going to rescue him from the slow “soul-destroying grind of unemployment.” Felix did try not to think about the school fees and debts he had to pay. As if to show his enemies that he was quite confident in his ability to get a new job, restore his reputation, and repay all debts that he had, the journalist decided “to lick his wounds” in “a five-star hotel.” It might be “an unwise venue” for him, but he didn’t care.
Angry and disappointed (Simile)
Claire had “such a pretty face but her eyes were red-rimmed” and her mouth was “straight as a knife.” She handed Felix “a plastic bag” which contained “a mobile phone, a charger, a framed photo” of their daughters, and his “complete signed set, all six volumes, of Manning Clark’s much loved History of Australia.” “The photograph” was “on the top” and it gave him hope. In his “foolish optimism,” he attempted to grab Claire’s hand, but she said “not to touch her.” By the time he had discovered “the Manning Clarks,” she was “gone.”
Forgotten memories (Simile)
Celine took her drink and “pushed her chair” so that Felix might easily examine her display: “a small Kodak print showing a white and willowy American soldier standing beside a palm tree.” There was one “one clipping” that had been pressed and folded “as flat as a violet in a scrapbook.” There were “bigger prints, all soldiers, clearly Americans.” “The Melbourne Herald” had stamped a number on the back of some of “the larger glossy prints but the biggest had been cut from Life magazine, leaving scalloped nail-scissor marks along one side.”
Fame (Metaphor)
It wasn’t a secret that Felix was vain. He always chose the most high profile cases to work on and that was how he earned his fame. When Angel was arrested, Felix returned to his “own” court depressed, not by the outcome of his case, which was “preordained,” but by the realization that his “life in journalism” was “being destroyed” at the time Felix might have expected his “moment in the sun.” No one would ever give him “the Angel story” although he was “better equipped to write it than any of the clever children who would be hired to do the job.”
