Interpreters
The unnamed narrator of the novel works as an interpreter. She had just moved to The Hague and gotten a job with the World Court there. Interpretation is not merely the job, of course, but an underlying thematic foundation of the entire story. As such, some of the most important metaphorical imagery is devoted to describing this job:
“there were great chasms beneath words, between two or sometimes more languages, that could open up without warning. As interpreters it was our job to throw down planks across these gaps.”
Classical Allusions
A very popular form of metaphor is the classical allusion. The general dumbing down of the populace—or, put another way, the turn away from teaching classical curriculum in American colleges—has produced a rather substantial turn away from such metaphorical usage. And it is precisely that aspect of education which the author somewhat ironically notes in her use of classical allusion as metaphor in at least once instance:
“It’s like an inversion of Zeuxis and Parrhasius, Eline said with an amused smile. I tried to recall the specifics of the reference, something that I had learned in school, a story about a contest to determine the best painter in ancient Greece.”
Idiomatic Similes
Another gently ironic subversion of a popular type of metaphorical imagery is the author’s engagement with idiomatic phrases. Idioms present a treasure trove of possibilities for metaphor because that is what of them are, essentially. But the incomplete quality of idiomatic phrases also make them suitable for subversion:
“She frowned as she dropped her bag and shed her coat, as she made her way toward me, I felt as though I had been caught in the act—although precisely what that act was I did not know”
Counsel for the Defense
Set against the backdrop of the International Court that tries war criminals, the book is peopled with some very bad characters. Or, then again, maybe not so much. The narrator’s work as interpreter puts her in close emotional proximity to one such accused criminal and through that relationship she comes to view the intricacies of such cases, leading a metaphor-laden empathetic description of the job of those who must defend those accused of the indefensible:
“Everyone deserves fair legal representation, even the most depraved criminal, even someone who has performed unspeakable crimes, the kind of acts that defy the imagination, the mere description of which would make most of us cover our ears and turn away. The defense lawyer does not have recourse to such cowardice, he or she must not only listen to but carefully study the record of these acts, he or she must inhabit and inhale their atmosphere. The very thing that the rest of us are unable to endure is the very thing inside of which the defense lawyer must live.”
Eline’s Home
Metaphor is not used extensively to describe setting in the novel, but when it is utilized, the result is often quite striking. At all times throughout the story there is a sense of dislocation and of things not exactly being on firm and solid ground. The result is that architecture often takes on almost a kind of personification quality:
“Her house, when I arrived, was lit throughout. The drapes were drawn back against the darkness, as if to declare that the residents of this home had nothing to hide. I stood outside and wondered what it would be like to live so exposed, to be so fearless. From the street, you could see directly into the ground level, and although there were no figures, the room was like a stage set”
