He’s Not Like Other Guys
Bennett is not like other guys. Of course, later on, the narrator will discover to what extent this is true. But for the time being, let the metaphor rest upon ordinary things that distinguish him from other guys:
“Women are raised to prize the tall man, but Bennett was no more than five-eight, and I liked the way we fit. I was glad he wore no fragrance; he smelled like clean lake water.”
He’s Really Not Like Other Guys
It’s later and truths are becoming known. Secrets are being revealed and questions are being raised. But answers are arriving slowly, in pieces, like a puzzle that must be together. One missing piece: what’s Bennett’s deal with dog hair?
“So we all had sick, injured, or rescued dogs. If coincidence, it was odd for a man who didn’t like dog hair on his clothes. If not, then Bennett was a predator drawn to the goodness he lacked.”
The 4th of July
The narrator recalls the first time she invited mystery man Bennett to her place from where they watched the 4th of July fireworks show. To be frank, she seems easily impressed by his use of metaphor:
“Every other year, the city switches rivers for the show. This year’s extravaganza was over the Hudson. Bennett had said it looked as if New Jersey were attacking New York. Who was he?”
The Narrator’s Impressive Use of Metaphor
If the narrator found some quality of mystery in Bennett’s rather tepid figurative perspective on the fireworks show, she can be forgiven for a singular lack after she her devises one of the most imaginative and resonant similes to be found in literature of the twenty-first century:
“I thought of all the actors of yesteryear that I had watched on late-night TV, and I landed on the iconic Montgomery Clift. He had been in a serious car accident—he drove into a tree—while filming Raintree County, and though the facial plastic surgery he had required was pretty good for the fifties, his looks had a definite before and after. Bennett, I thought, was the bad version of the bad version of Montgomery Clift.”
This Plus That Equals Neither
The narrator spends much of the book caught in the nether land bordering grief and guilt. The combination of these two powerful emotions serve to produce something else to which she gives a name and signs a lease:
“Despair owned me again.”
