comment on language and meaning

Bastašić’s novel is uniquely aware of itself as a work of language as such. In the first chapter, Sara, the narrator, reflects on the subject of her story: i.e., Lejla, her childhood best friend. As the narrator of the story, Sara understands herself to possess unique agency over the telling of events, the presentation of characters, and, consequently, of reality as readers experience it. Lejla, because she is not the narrator, is merely “three hits on the keyboard” (2). Her power, so poignant and undeniable in real life, is severely muted when she is a mere subject in a manuscript.