The Narrator

The key to the narrator’s character is her willingness to share everything about her relationship with Ciaran. She resists any kind of spin to the account of her spiral into obsession, her careening into alcohol and promiscuity, and her frank bewilderment over her motivation for such methodical self-destruction.

Given her own willingness to judge herself harshly, it is easy to dislike the narrator. As Reuben tells her, she believes there is something special about her emotional pain. She is whiney. She is needy. She is miserable. She is paranoid. She is jealous and insecure. She is addicted to self-loathing. She sees so few rewards in her life that the egocentric Ciaran comes to embody everything she needs to be happy. She refuses to distance herself from actions she sees are detrimental to both her emotional well-being and to her psychological stability. Multiple characters advise her to...