The relationship between narrator and a couple - Essay Example

The woman turns her whole life to writing numerous letters in which she analyzes her present and past experience. Beside her terrible and irreplaceable loss she has to deal with one more problem – her personal betrayal. On the day of the incident she was with another man called Jasper, a famous journalist. The woman cannot forgive herself this and cannot understand herself as well. It is Jasper and his girlfriend Petra who are described in the novel from rather unexpected perspective. The very situation itself in which the main heroine finds herself is bizarre- she is in the center of love triangle however, love affairs seem not to bother her anymore.

So speaking about topics such popular as terrorism Chris Cleave manages to show it witty yet seriously. He reflects on the themes of loss, sin, betrayal, loneliness, atonement, and hope. He tells the story not from his point of view but from the perspective of the principal heroine: he looks with her eyes and speaks with her words. That is why the language of the novel is far from sophisticated however it is sad and ironical at the same time. So the principal heroine is the narrator herself while the listener (which is really strange and unpredictable) is Osama Ben Laden.

Obviously the relationship between the couple of Jasper and Petra and the narrator are very tense, strange and specific. First and the most noteworthy thing is the psychological state of the narrator itself. Her grief is literally felt through the words, her loss squeezes from every little sentence. It is not only that she carries this toy rabbit of her dead son with her wherever she goes, it is her eyes, her irony, and her constant and unstable self- analysis. She tries very hard not to fall apart and the only weapon she has is her natural sense of humor and her simplicity.

She feels real from the very beginning of the novel and even Jasper seems to be attracted with her