Narrator

The narrator who remains anonymous is an American anthropologist who came to Africa to work on her doctoral thesis. Although her name is never known we know that she is in her early 30's, very literate, and very much an independent modern woman in ideology. She is terrified of gaining weight or becoming mediocre in any way; anxieties that seem to be tied to her fatherless upbringing by an obese emotionally-damaged mother who had to raise her only child in poverty. The narrator is in a constant state of inner conflict between her need for romantic fulfillment and her fear of becoming swallowed up or dominated and then devalued in a heterosexual relationship. She tends to obsess about her relationship with Nelson Denoon and she feels a strong urge to write down everything she experiences. She also has an unusually strong memory and is able to recall entire...