A Metaphorical Stylle
Lots of metaphorical language to be found throughout the novel. Not just the typical kind which will be used for later examples, but a richness of language just as a matter of course to lend a certain texture to the words and personality to the narration. It is a thing called style and the style of writing here veers sharply toward the symbolic and figurative rather than the simple and declarative:
“Back to my room. I start to sort it out, to turn over the day, scraps, feelings, words and laughter, all are like a thin layer of rubbish that I gather up and throw into the basket.”
Less Artsy, More Crafty
While figurative comparisons either directly made or through the use of a simile on pretty much every page, not all reach for the lofty heights of poetry like in the example above. Style is a funny thing; use it too much to draw attention to itself and eventually it begins to lose its sense of style. So for every rather more abstract use of metaphorical language as a manifestation of style can be found three or four examples of a more mundane type that still manages to retain, nevertheless, that sense of stylistic coherency:
“I’ve slept two hours and wakened. Dark in the house. A light and simple wakening, that’s what’s been frightening me lately. My sleep is like straw in the wind, leaving no traces.”
First Person Narration
First-person narration is like a gift from the gods for writers who love the simile. Less so than its more direct counterpart, a simile sounds conversation and natural and thus it allows greater latitude for using figurative language without it seeming forced. People talking in similes (and in metaphor, for that matter) all the time without even being aware of it and a single short sentence set off by itself as a complete paragraph unto itself is less likely to come off as showing off than when occurring in third-person narration:
“I was staring at her as if hypnotized.”
Death
The metaphorical style of writing fits the metaphysical themes explored through the narrative. War, death, coma, near-death and darkness. The novel is not a quick slot through happy shiny fun land. Events get serious and thoughts grow bleak, but metaphor is the go-to literary tool for such pursuits:
“For this is death, I know. A heaviness such as there has never been before. Standing is difficult, walking is difficult. Hardly eating but swelling all the time. Only the mind is clear and lucid. The body is a rag.”
The Lover
Some kind of book The Lover would be if there was not even just one single engagement with metaphor to describe the conceptual sensation of love, right? Well, there is more than just one, but there is one in particular that stands out from the rest as it effectively captures the menacing lunacy that arrives with the realization that one is losing one’s heart to another:
“I’m head over heels in love already. No longer any need even to look at her. She’s there in my heart. Drinking coffee.”
