City Street

All of the third person sections of the novel are set an unnamed street in an undisclosed city. This setting is defined by constant sound, movement, and activity. These sights and sounds create a sort of music, that the narrator urges their audience to listen to. Throughout these sections, the narrator describes each individual life of the residents living on this street. Although the residents are sharing the same physical location, they know little about one another. They occupy themselves with daily rituals and mundane tasks. Their lives and activities overlap and intersect, yet they are almost entirely unaware of one another's inner worlds and lives.

Narrator's Apartment

In the narrative present of the first person sections, the narrator is most often depicted at home in her apartment. She lives by herself in an undisclosed location several hundred miles away from the city in which she lived...