| Memory plays a tremendous role in how we perceive our lives and ourselves. We are shaped more by our remembrances than any actual events that took place. This is the story of a young woman's self-discovery through narrating the life of her mother. By telling both her own story, and that of a loved one, she is able to weave together a past for herself, thereby providing the necessary foundation to move forward with her life. There is an emphasis on belonging and an assertion that we must come from a place in order to have a place to go.; Not all of the vignettes are meant to have an obvious narrator. As the main character (the introductory voice) becomes more and more invested in her mother's story, clarity is lost between what is her perception and what is her mother's. The temptation is to question how real the stories are if they are mediated and "colored" by the daughter, but this is the point. The ultimate goal of the novel is for the reader to realize, as the daughter does, that the reality of the events is, indeed, what has been written, despite any embellishments, that the memory created is the only true and important reality. |
