Whose breathing whistled likea paper kite
As the narrator goes to see his father after receiving an invite, he vividly describes his father, a situation that enhances imagery. While at that, the narrator compares his father's breathing to the whistling of a paper kite. The use of this particular simile conveys to the reader his father's health situation, as the reader is able to tell that the narrator's father is sick: "From his domineering, ocher-colored armchair, while he changed channels with the solitary digit of his mutilated hand, this aged and frightened man, smelling of dirty sheets, whose breathing whistled like a paper kite, told me, in the same tone he'd used all through his life to recount an anecdote about Demosthenes..."
Squaring up like a retired boxer
The narrator, Gabriel, says that he only attended his father's classes only because he enjoyed the pleasure of seeing him embody Gaitan or any other character. The narrator uses a simile in which he compares how he got used to seeing him squaring up like a retired boxer: "... I got used to watching him, seeing him squaring up like a retired boxer, his prominent jaw, and cheekbones, the imposing geometry of his back that filled out his suits, his eyebrows so long they got in his eyes and sometimes seemed to sweep across his lids like theater curtains..."
The fitting of the prestigious occupation of a chronicler of reality on the narrator
While expressing his lack of knowledge with respect to how Sara Guterman's experiences became the subject of his first book, the narrator uses a simile in which he compares the fitting of the prestigious occupation of a chronicler of reality on him to the fitting of a glove: "I don't know when it became apparent that Sara Guterman's experiences would be the material for my first book, nor when this epiphany suggested that the prestigious occupation of a chronicler of reality was designed to fit me like a glove."
Roar like a caged animal
The narrator uses a simile in which he compares speech from Sara's father after he had lost his temper to the roaring of a caged animal. The use of this simile enables the reader to conceptualize the kind of man that Peter Guterman was particularly after he'd lost his temper: "he very often lost his temper, and would occasionally roar like a caged animal, leaving his employees in tears all afternoon."
He turned on his side like a fetus or a frightened animal
After helping his father to the bed from the hospital, the narrator compares the way his father turned onto his side, particularly after having asked him not to leave him alone to the fright of a child or a fetus. This enhances imagery: "As soon as we got him under the covers, he asked us to close the curtains but not to leave him alone, and he turned on his side, like a fetus or a frightened child, maybe out of habit from the tube stuck between his ribs for so many days, maybe because bodies have a way of making themselves small when there is danger."
