Identity

Throughout the collection, Crosley examines the evolution of the self in a range of narrative contexts. In each of her 16 essays, Crosley presents a new distinct experience from her personal life that has contributed to her evolving identity over time. In some of the essays, external changes, conflicts, or forces disrupt Crosley’s sense of self, or force her to reflect upon who she understands herself to be. In others of the essays, internal changes or emotional shifts inspire these bouts of self-reflection. In “Outside Voices,” for example, Crosley’s fraught relationship with her neighbor Jared makes her consider her own age. “[His] very existence highlighted my own aging in a way that jarred me . . . despite the stresses of aging, I had always had a manageable view of it. I reflected at will. But after Jared, my own mortality would smack me in the face at random” (17). Jared...