Structure

The author divides the narrative into 26 chapters, bookended by a prologue and epilogue section. The structural progression of Wild Game is almost entirely linear. The author starts her recollection of and reflection on her life beginning in 1980, and moving through to the present day. She uses the start of her mother Malabar's affair with Ben Souther, as the narrative's inciting event. Every detail and recounted scene to follow, depicts Adrienne's life and consciousness after Malabar and Ben's relationship began. This structural progression allows the author to explore the effects of her mother's distorted relational dynamics on her teenage and young adult consciousness.

The forward-moving trajectory of Wild Game, also allows the author and reader alike, to track Adrienne's work to understand, reconcile, and distance herself from her mother's messy and manipulative world. The neat narrative structure, therefore, grants a balance to the complex and consuming influence Malabar...