Intermezzo Literary Elements

Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction

The novel takes place from late summer to Christmas 2022 in various parts of Ireland, mostly Dublin.

The perspective shifts between Peter, Ivan, and Margaret, all in the close third person. Peter's sections take on a stream-of-consciousness style.

The tone can be described as reflective, romantic, emotionally devastating, and melancholic as the Koubek brothers grapple with their father's death and navigate various relationships. The reader accompanies the characters through their emotional ups and downs, experiencing grief, loneliness, tenderness, and humor.

The novel doesn't utilize a traditional protagonist-antagonist structure. Instead, it focuses on interpersonal and familial rifts in which there is no clear antagonist.

The relational struggles Peter and Ivan contend with, particularly related to the death of their father, form the major conflict of the novel.

The climax occurs when Peter and Ivan reconcile after Ivan's chess tournament, realizing that they can work through their differences (Chapter 17).

When Peter experiences difficult emotions with either Sylvia or Naomi, this foreshadows him seeking out the other for emotional regulation and support.

The extent of Naomi's desperation is understated. The reader only has access to her through Peter's perspective. Peter, while aware of Naomi's destitution, cannot truly know the extent of what she goes through.

There are allusions to music, chess, poetry, and popular culture. For example, when Sylvia comforts Peter in his grief over losing a father who never attempted to get to know him, Peter thinks of the line, "Love’s austere and lonely offices" from Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" (Chapter 1).

Imagery surrounding strategy in chess is described in painstaking detail, reflecting the sheer intelligence required to play chess. This can be seen when Ivan launches into explanations using heavy chess jargon while talking to Margaret.

- Peter is thrust into the role of "head of a family which has at the same time ceased to exist" (Chapter 1).
- Peter is mad about Ivan being with a woman so much older than him. However, Peter is in a very similar relationship with Naomi.

- Despite their age difference, Ivan and Peter's stories parallel each other in terms of how they wrestle with their grief and live their lives.
- When Peter asks whether a "normal woman" of Margaret's age would want to hang around someone in Ivan's situation, this echoes Margaret's earlier statement that she and Ivan are at very different stages of life (Chapter 7).

N/A

The chess pieces on the board are personified throughout the novel. For instance, during a streak of well-played games, Ivan sees "the trapped knight" as a "hidden idea that manifested its own reality, the idea that created itself" (Chapter 10).