comment on structure

The novel consists of 20 chapters. With the exception of Chapters 15, 16 and 17 each of this chapter is about 20 pages long. The excluded chapters range from three to six pages in length. These are the chapters that deal with Elf’s death. By making them much shorter than the rest of the chapters Toews causes them to stand out. She is saying that there is little that can be said about death. Elf’s death occurs outside the novel as our narrator is in Winnipeg at the time.