Murder Most Unfoul
The story begins with the murder of an infant. The imagery used to describe this malevolent act is shocking in its moral ambiguity which is heavily dependent upon simile and metaphor. “An instant later, she fell into what seemed like a deep, restorative sleep…The light in her face was snuffed out, and the sensation of gazing upon an empty receptacle intensified as the intruder raised the toy, and inhaled once again the little girl’s aroma, now enriched by her escaping soul.” This surprisingly benevolent description of such malevolent use of force creates a tone of moral ambivalence will prove to become a major theme of the pursuit of the identity of this mysteriously murderous intruder.
Mythology, Folklore, and Religion
The pathway to identification of this villainous figure leads straight through superstition and belief in things unseen. Metaphor is almost a requirement to deal with such fictions people cling to as fact. The murder of the baby is blamed by some on a sinister entity from Basque myth and folklore. “Inguma is one of the oldest, most sinister creatures in traditional folklore, an evil genie that enters victims’ houses at night and suffocates them.” This description of “Inguma” contributes the persistence of ambiguity in the story with the speaker’s metaphorical reference to a genie. Generally speaking, genies are not typically considered evil considering their defining characteristic is to grant the wishes made by others. The subtext here could be interpreted as suggesting that blaming murders on such a mythical creature is itself an example of wish-fulfillment.
Stormy Weather
As the title might indicate, multiple references to storms are made throughout the novel. The storms in the story range from the very literal to the entirely metaphorical. Examples of the latter being a description of the mood settling over two sisters as they sit together to enjoy a cup of coffee. “The atmosphere in the office was like the aftermath of an electrical storm, both women waiting for the charged energy in the air to subside and for calm to be restored before speaking.” Though the only storm in this scene is the suggestion of one conveyed through simile, the language utilized in the description is exactly the same as used to describe literal stormy conditions elsewhere. In this book, the divergence between figurative and literal storms is diminished to a blur.
Man and Demon
The blurring of distinctions permeates the narrative. It ranges from the blur of moral ambiguity to the blurring between literal and metaphorical storms. Ultimately, this aspect of the storytelling even blurs the line between human and non-humans. “It disturbed her deeply to admit that she loved him, she loved that man, she loved a demon, the ideal of manly perfection, the great seducer.” The characterization of a demon as idealized masculinity carries certain undeniable undertones of explicit misandry, of course, but the contempt for male gender is compromised by the carnal desire. That philosophical contradiction maintains the integrity of the novel’s overall portrait of a world lacking in absolute truths.
The One Absolute
This portrait of a world lacking the comfort of absolute truths is presented allusively throughout the story, but there is one particular moment when the subject is directly addressed and explicitly acknowledged, albeit through language robust in metaphor. “Everything we thought was solid collapsed, all life’s worries seem absurd, because the only absolute is the chaos that forces us to surrender humbly to death’s supremacy.” This is the philosophical contemplation of a coroner looking down a corpse while performing an autopsy. That is a very particular situation one would assume easily inspires a person to such nihilist meditation. And yet, this contemplative expression of existential dread could just as easily have been the thoughts of any number of other characters at any time during the course of the narrative.
