Ford does not tell the story linearly, but rather jumps around in time and place as the narrator is reminded of specific events. What begins as a straightforward scenario—two married couples form a friendship that ends when two of those people have an affair with each other—gradually becomes a tangle of betrayal involving fake illnesses, gambling debts, tours of the world, arranged marriages, Catholic guilt, promiscuity, and the incest taboo. The story is told mostly through expository text that describes what the narrator feels about the events as often as it describes what those events actually are. The dialogue supports an impression the narrator has or a value he espouses—it never allows the other characters to speak for themselves.
The Good Soldier