“We’re always in the middle. Where we stand, we see only partially.”

The Prologue clarifies the author’s position on storytelling in a broad sense. She notes here that it’s never possible to be outside of one’s story or to step back from it and analyze it in its entirety. She argues that an individual can see only pieces of a story at once and that meaning comes in small doses. The novel’s many narrators and its reliance on interior monologue support this claim: Each narrator, although returning to narrate more than one chapter throughout the novel, tells only a portion of their story at once. The novel is thus episodic, unfolding through a series of vignette-like chapters.

“François knew that Paris was the heart of their glorious nation, though he’d never been there of course.”

The novel introduces François through the framework of colonial identity. Although French, he has never lived in France. He has spent the bulk of his life in the Mediterranean, although his years in Beirut didn’t render him Lebanese in anyone’s eyes. He struggles with the complexities of colonial identity for much of his life, never fully identifying with one nation or culture. This helps establish the theme of Displacement, Rootlessness, and Belonging.