The Dodo
The novel is about issues relation to evolution, adaptation, and extinction. The extinction of the dodo bird has become a pervasive metaphor covering all aspects of Darwinian theory, with one character describing the bird as “the poster animal for island extinctions.”
Hoarding and Trout Fishing
A metaphorical comparison is made between the acting buying and hoarding and trout fishing. It is a comparison situated with the context of gender differentiation which seeks to unite the comparable thrill of stalking prey and reeling in a beautiful treasure:
“going antiquing for women is like fishing for guys”
Minor Characters
A single well-constructed, well-place simile can make quite an impact on the reader. Properly used, it can transform a completely minor—almost irrelevant—character into something memorable:
“he enjoyed Rita—she seemed to like him, respect him even, unlike his ex-wife’s mother, who regarded him out of her black Sicilian eyes as if he were the Antichrist and jumped up from her chair with a little gasp every time he stepped into the room”
Catching Eagles
How do you catch an eagle? Turns out, it is even harder than one might imagine and most people would probably imagine it is none too easy:
“So the eagles had to be trapped and removed, no easy task. First they tried netting them on the wing out of the door of a helicopter, but it was like trying to catch butterflies on a roller coaster, and even if they’d been successful, there was the problem of the eagles surviving the fall.”
A Pain That Lingers
Significant metaphorical imagery is devoted to describing physical illness and pain in the book. The misery of several characters during moments of anatomical discomfort come vividly to life through the magic of metaphor:
“The pain in her abdomen hasn’t gone away—in fact, it seems worse, as if she’s swallowed some sort of corrosive, Drano, Emma Bovary’s strychnine, brodifacoum.”
