Summary

Narrator and author Elisabeth Tova Bailey is on holiday in Europe when she suddenly falls very sick. She returns home to the United States, but is sicker than she has ever been. She hopes her doctors will be able to cure her, but she is afraid to go to sleep for fear that, if she does, she will never wake up again.

Analysis

The prologue in this book serves to provide the necessary backstory of how Elisabeth first became ill. By positioning the onset of her illness in the prologue rather than the main narrative, the author makes a statement about how the illness will be focalized in the narrative. The focus of the book is on living with a long-term or chronic illness and attempting to convalesce, not on the specific onslaught of the condition. Elisabeth's fear that if she goes to sleep...