Structure

The overall story of Danny and Amos’s lives and collaboration is told in linear order in the past test but around this central chronological structure Lewis also includes stories from other points in the timeline, often involving people who are not obviously connected to Danny and Amos at least initially. Lewis most often uses this technique at the start of a chapter, introducing the reader to a time, person, or place that does not immediately seem connected to the central story before slowly revealing why the story is relevant to the story of Danny and Amos.

For example, Chapter 6 begins with a professor of psychology named Paul Hoffman founding the Oregon Research Institute and continues with an exploration of some of the research conducted there, before Lewis reveals that Amos and Danny came to the institute to pursue their own research. Likewise, Chapter 8 begins with the...