Simile: Cameras
Millie's story begins the novel, and she feel utterly beset by the reporters and cameramen who plague her every step. They want any info on Joss they can get, preferably salacious information. She thinks to herself, "Even here now the sounds of cameras, like the assault of a machine-gun, is still playing inside my head" (2). The simile comparing the sounds of the camera flashing and snapping in her face to a machine gun reinforces the violent intrusion into her personal life. She feels as if she is being physically attacked by the media, leading her to vanishing away to Torr.
Metaphor: Millie as a girl
Millie is in her head a great deal after Joss's death, reflecting on her youth, her marriage, her feelings of nostalgia and despair. She wonders what the girl version of herself would think about all of this, thinking, "The girl I was has been swept out to sea. She is another tide entirely" (8). This haunting metaphor suggests how different one's childhood fantasies of adulthood and actual adulthood are. Yes, there is a straight line from Millie as a child to Millie at the present moment; it doesn't often feel that way to one in the older years of their life. Those two periods seem disjointed, barely connected. Millie's childhood dreams and ambitions are of another person entirely.
Metaphor/Simile: Listening to jazz
When Millie watches Joss play jazz in the club, she observes, "But every single face in this place is prepared to go the distance. All attention rapt, euphoric, dedicated. They will follow the sax down to the deep dark place, wherever it leads them, disciples to the cool blue. It is almost holy. I feel like I am in a church and I am the only one who has got her eyes open whilst she prays" (17). Using the simile of feeling like being in a church and the metaphor of the listeners "following" the sax down somewhere deep indicates how transporting, how spiritual the music can be. Millie doesn't get it at first, but soon she too is lost in it.
Simile: Memories
Edith Moore thinks to herself that "Some memories have become more vivid as time has gone on. Some have shocked her just by shoring themselves up, like unexpected booty, treasure brought in by the tide" (219). In this lovely simile Kay suggests what it feels like to be growing older and have memories slip away, only to pop back up again like a "treasure." These memories may wash out again, but in their momentary presence they sparkle with the light of recognition. Interestingly, Colman's imminent visit will be like a tangible, in-the-flesh version of one of these memories.
Metaphor: Life
Millie rues, "My life is a fiction now, an open book. I am trapped inside the pages of it" (154). In this recognizable metaphor, Millie suggests that her life is "fiction," meaning that people seem to have stolen its truth from her; that she is an "open book," meaning nothing is private for her anymore; and she is "trapped" inside the pages of the book, meaning that she cannot get away from the things—journalists, memories, Colman's anger—that confine her.
