After four sittings, the plot is beginning to take shape. On page 16, Dagmar is gone and has left behind a hyperbolic emptiness. An "abyss" opens where she should be at X's side. On the next page, Dagmar is leaving--actually "vanishing." But she is also seen in a square feeding birds and enjoying the remarks of a "bold man" (X), something that seems to happen early in their relationship (which increasingly appears to be an affair). This page, then, seems to be a flashback scene. Finally, on page three Dagmar, who is beautifully dressed, gets into a car.
Obviously, the scenes seem out of order--if it's appropriate to talk about order in this book. Add to this the fact that the second of these pages is narrated like a flashback in the classical sense. The fragmented nature of this novel gives the book a feeling of being a disjointed collection of memories.
Interestingly, though, the narrative is in present tense. This is the case on every page so far. This invests the narrative with extraordinary vividness, as if X is reliving these events even as he remembers them. This combination of non-linearity and presents tense narrative creates a very interesting dichotomy. These events are happening now, but they are somehow also jumbled distant memories. There is an immediacy in the novel that is nevertheless clouded by the fracturing of time.
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