Outline

“On Sundays, he played in a rock band, just for fun. He was expecting his eleventh child, which wasn’t as bad as it sounded when you considered that he and his wife had once adopted quadruplets from Guatemala.”

Faye’s description of the billionaire establishes her as a narrator with a sardonic sense of humor and a keen eye for the oddities of contemporary life. The billionaire wants to project an image of a liberal, easy-going man, as evinced by his professed love for his band. Ironically, he also shows his unthinking privilege, as he can adopt children from another country and culture as if they are more feathers in his cap. The billionaire’s eager sharing of his life story sets the pattern for the novel and introduces The Roles of Storyteller and Listener in Shaping Narratives.

“I was finding it difficult to assimilate everything I was being told. The waitresses kept bringing more things, oysters, relishes, special wines. He was easily distracted, like a child with too many Christmas presents. But when he put me in the taxi he said, enjoy yourself in Athens, though I didn’t remember telling him that was where I was going.”

From the very onset, Faye feels overwhelmed by the details of the world, which demand too much of her attention. The billionaire embodies this surfeit of details with his life, with its outlines and acquisitions, the antithesis of Faye’s. Cusk uses the simile of a child distracted with Christmas presents to show the billionaire’s immersion in food and objects. Faye’s literary magazine, an immaterial idea, is the last thing on his mind.