Michel Butor's Passing Time is a story in which the detective hunts himself. In this circular, self-contained structure any connection with an external reality is tenuous. Is Bleston really so oppressive, or is Revel extremely paranoid? Did he actually commit any crime? The reader cannot be sure, for he perceives reality only as it is reflected in the narrative of which Revel is both writer and actor. Indeed, the only certain reality is Revel's consciousness where he plays criminal, detective and victim simultaneously and where his fate is determined by the interplay of these internal agents, whose behaviour is spurred, but not designed, by external circumstance. (pp. 29-30)

On the most obvious level, Passing Time is written in the first person, the subjective voice of the self. Yet this same voice embodies both second and third person narration. For Revel is not only writer but reader of his...