Comment on structure

The novel is composed of 34 unnumbered chapters. Some are short as one or two pages; others are ten pages or more. The main action takes place over a roughly six-month period around Sticky's seventeenth birthday and Anh-thu's sixteenth, when the two of them are engaged in a relationship. Other incidents, such as Sticky's earlier life and foster-care situations, are described in chapters and sections that are interspersed with the main narrative, giving a filmic sense of "flashback/rewind" or "fast-forward" mode. The chapters are unconventionally "titled" by the device of having the first few words of each opening sentence blown up in large display type: for example, It's Tied Sevens And Sticky's handling the rock on top. Back and Forth with the left hand. In front of his glazed body. Rhythm pats....