Often, still, my own life story feels fragmented like beads unstrung.
-- Clemantine Wamariya (Prologue)

Importance: When Clemantine and Claire appeared on Oprah, Clemantine assumed the role she was expected to play. Despite her ability to behave according to this prescribed version of self, she feared that her life story would always feel fractured and unhinged. In this passage, she compares her life to beads cut from their string. The image is not only a reference to the title, but to the childhood fable Clemantine loved, and her adolescent obsession with making bracelets in order to quell her restless emotions. All of these references to beads also address the fragmented narrative structure.

Everything shrank.
-- Clemantine Wamariya (chapter 1)

Importance: When Clemantine was six years old, she felt the dimensions of her world growing smaller. In this passage she compares her to the opposite of a tight towel thrown into water. The moment addresses Clemantine's first experiences with loss. Each day...