Selling to the king
The premise of this novel begins as an allegory about a salesman struggling to find the confidence he needs to sell a holographic telecommunications system to a king in Saudi Arabia. This is an allegory that is probably not that important to some people, but to adults who work in industries where this kind of selling is part of how they earn money, the task is clearly a reference to that feeling. This is the ultimate sale. This is the allegory of true heroism for salesmen. The conundrum is doubled by the irony of the fact that this guy doesn't care about what he's selling—it's more about his self-esteem.
The lump
When the salesman finds out that he has bigger problems than the sale, that comes as a bit of a shock. He is drunk, which is a meaningful time to learn that one has a cancerous lump (because it symbolizes the deathly effects of a night of binge-drinking; the beverages are depressants). He then realizes that he was emotionally mistaken about his life. At the beginning, he thinks he is supposed to get what he wants, but at the end, he just wants to survive. Living is what he wants, and he'll be happy with whatever happens, as long as he doesn't die.
The heart/panic attack
Another clever symbol is that Alan's heart attack is actually a panic attack, but the attack was so intense that he concludes that it is deadly. This connects the health issues of his fight of life (the cancer subplot) with his emotional thought life. By panicking, he can experience death anxiety so strongly, he thinks the panic attack is going to kill him. This is a symbol referring the reader to the intensity of panic. It isn't a casual emotion, it seems; it seems that panic refers to survival fear.
Zahra, the anima
Zahra fills an archetypal role in Alan's life. When Alan sees Zahra, he sees something confusing and epic. He sees a part of his own self-approval as dependent on her. This is clear because she reports that he was hitting on her. He denies that, but clearly his behavior was romantic in nature. When she denies him and rejects him, the problem is amplified to full volume, and then when they end up together, the tension within his self is resolved. It is a depiction of the psychology of infatuation.
The allegory of love
In addition to Zahra's own personal hesitations, Alan and Zahra also have social boundaries they'll have to break if they want to be together. The portrait of love is one that is counter-cultural and taboo, because Alan is not the "right" kind of person for Zahra. This shows that people are embedded in cultural narratives, and the dilemma is actually quite ironic, because Alan loses the sale but wins Zahra. He settles down with her in Saudi Arabia instead of going back home.
