Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
The story happens in East Asia and moves through Russia, Britain, the USA and Ireland. 20th century.
Narrator and Point of View
The novel has nine different narrators from nine different cities.
Tone and Mood
Pessimistic.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Quasar is the protagonist while we have Neal Brose and Margarita Latunsky with other characters as antagonists.
Major Conflict
We have two main conflicts in this novel, the conflict between police and terrorist attacks, the conflict between love and marriage life.
Climax
We have many climaxes here in this novel in different areas, first, the gas attack of the cult group in Tokyo while the police arrive to arrest them. Lawyer Neal Brose climbs up a mountain and dies. Grandma dies as she knows that her granddaughter had an affair with the lawyer. Margarita Latunsky is taken by the police
Foreshadowing
The lawyer's decision to end his relationship with his wife foreshadows his tragic end.
Understatement
Quasar's call to the boy understates big bad events will happen later.
Allusions
The allusion of the terrorist who represents evil in the novel.
The religious cult which reveals the troublesomeness of human beliefs.
Death which attracts the attention of people towards religion and divine.
Imagery
Terrorism and war which threaten the welfare of the world.
Spirituality as the author wants people to consider spiritual things more.
The strangeness of death and how it occurs in a sudden way.
Paradox
There are contradicted ideas as we have death and terrorism with love and affairs. The author uses such a paradox to show the evilness of human nature sometimes.
Parallelism
The lawyer's departing of his wife is parallel to his seeking of making an affair with the girl.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“A weapon men use against women is the refusal to take them seriously.” The weapon here refers to objections that men express to women.
Personification
"Hot-Shower Me are particularly selfish" as if showers are human beings who can behave in a selfish way.
