BEER Ch. 6, 57-61: Reg reports in

[Monte Davis]

MK> P's jump cuts, like tonal switches in classic dramatic comedy, imply the non-linear in a way most 

tragedies or even tragicomedies do not

 

I was highlighting not the non-linearity (nested flashbacks are old and common in all narrative genres) but the absence of  cues to mark the transition from Maxine and Reg now, with a quick dip into Maxine’s mind (“’..he’s so paranoid,’ yeah, Reg, ‘he only likes to meet face-to-face on the subway’”)

 

…to Reg and Eric at an earlier moment on that subway. No line break, no “Today [they had met as] an insane white Christer at one end of the car was…” I was thinking stylistic, not thematic.

 

Not a big deal. Having been enlightened recently about the simple, straightforward third-person narration in GR, I now see that I never understood the basics of POV in forty years of professional writing, editing and English teaching. So when I go off about what I find to be interesting tricks in P’s voice, consider it just my own eccentric hobbyhorse. J

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