Miklowitz's primary technique in Close to the Edge is a series of juxtapositions: young against old; public self against private self; selfishness against caring. Settings, characters, and scenes contrast with each other. For example, in one incident Jenny sits in a near empty shopping mall on a Friday night, recalling the story one of the women at the senior center (Hannah) told her about how she spent Friday nights as a young woman: surrounded by family, celebrating Shabbos, and praying together. The contrast between the lack of family, the lack of religion, and the lack of tradition in her family against that of Hannah's pushes Jenny toward action: she puts out candles for dinner that Friday night.

The book is told in first-person, so readers are privy to the "battle" in Jenny's mind between the emptiness she feels so often with the rays of hope which...