Loss and Grief

In this novel that begins with the death of the narrator’s mother and ends with the death of her dog, loss is the driving force, compelling much of the actions and tension. Critical to remember is the narrator’s age. Elvis is ten at the time of her mother’s death and twelve when composing the novel’s account of events. This is an age when someone might initially be realizing what death is, what it means when someone dies. Elvis is forced to understand loss through experience, a doubly difficult effort. Particularly for a young girl with a scientific mind, squaring what death is versus what her emotions are proves to be the main tension of Elvis’s grief. Early in the novel, Elvis thinks, “Mom felt dead to us, but she didn’t really feel gone,” a fine summation of precisely...