The Past

Throughout the collection, the author uses inventive narrative structures in order to enact her explorations concerning the past. This is particularly the case in stories including “First Aid,” “Two Scorched Men,” and “A Dusty Lunch.” For example, in “First Aid” and in “Two Scorched Men,” the author opens with a memory. In “First Aid,” Nell is recalling the day she “came home . . . just before dinnertime and found the front door open,” the car gone, and “a trail of blood splotches on the steps” and “inside the house” (3). On the story’s third page, the narrative shifts into the narrative present, saying, “That was some time ago. Early autumn, as [Nell] recalls, a year in the later 1980s. There were personal computers then . . . No cellphones though” (5). Because of the first aid class she and Tig are taking in the present, Nell is reflecting on her past...