Time

Time is presented as a construct which can be rigid, elusive, and ever-shifting. The structure of the novel itself reinforces the importance of time as a theme within the novel. Jean narrates from the narrative present, but he flips back through various moments in time to tell the story, calling attention to the way in which the past and the present intermingle with one another not just in the artificial construct of the novel he is writing, but in the human mind, as we see here: “But when he served my grenadine, I said nothing. I took out the card Hutte had lent me. And now that we’re in the next century, I’ve stopped writing for a moment on page 7 of this Claire-fontaine writing pad to have another look at that card, which lives in the file” (7). For Jean, the past and the present...