Opening Page
The novel opens on a metaphor. Well, not exactly the opening sentence, but the second paragraph. And since the first paragraph is just one sentence, that’s close enough. It is a sign of things to come as this is a metaphor-laden narrative. Some are easily understood while others less so. The first shot over the bow falls somewhere in the middle:
“It hasn’t rained for three months. The trees are prospecting underground, sending reserves of roots into the dry ground, roots like razors to open any artery water-fat.”
Pop Culture
Navigating thought the narrative will require a proper knowledge of pop culture references. They populate the figurative seascape like icebergs in the ocean and those unfamiliar with likely crash into one eventually. If Bogey and Bacall pass you by, chances are you won’t get this allusion to a French actor synonymous with “cool.”
“Like Dirk Bogarde she prided herself on her profile and it was lit to suitable effect under the dull streetlights.”
Darkness
It is hard to find a novel written after 1900 that doesn’t use “darkness” as a metaphor. It is almost certainly the most pervasive metaphor in modern fiction and if not, then it certainly ranks in the top three. Here are two examples in the same paragraph:
“Louise and I, walked out of darkness as though it were a tunnel. We walked into the morning, the morning was waiting for us, it was already perfect, high sun over a level plain. Looking back I thought I saw the darkness where we had left it. I didn’t think it could come after us.”
"You"
The narrator is constantly addressing a lover as “you” and what follows the pronoun is often the construction of a metaphor. The “you” exists in two worlds separately but simultaneously, as literal being as well as metaphorical concept. Some examples:
“You are a pool of clear water where the light plays.”
“You stood up and the water fell from you in silver streams.”
“I came to you for a crown and you offered me a kingdom.”
"I"
The object of affection is seen through the eyes of metaphor, but the narrator does not live isolated in the literal world. “I” becomes another pronoun which is a gateway to metaphorical imagery:
“Scoop me in your hands for I am good soil. Eat of me and let me be sweet.”
“Irritation from gut to gullet. I wanted to snarl like the dog I am.”
“I was deep in the slopbucket of romance.”
