Pitch Dark (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Renata Adler
- First Published: 1983
- Type of Plot: Novel of manners
- Time of Work: 1981, with flashbacks reaching to the early 1960’s
- Setting: Connecticut; Ireland, near Dublin; Orcas Island, off Bellingham, Washington
- Principal Characters: Kate Ennis, Jake
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Antistory
- Subjects: 1960’s, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Traveling or travelers, Love or romance, Authors or writers, Guilt, 1980’s, New England, Emotions, Reality, Storytelling, Adultery, Islands, Truth, Connecticut, Ireland or Irish people
- Locales: Connecticut, Ireland, Orcas Island
The Novel
The unconventional, oblique narrative method of Pitch Dark makes plot summary difficult and tentative, but the novel’s division into three sections—“Orcas Island,” “Pitch Dark,” and “Home”—provides a helpful structure.
Kate Ennis, the narrator, tells the first part of her story from Orcas Island, but the events described take place in New England. “Orcas Island,” like the other two sections, weaves together Kate’s painful musings on her recent affair with Jake, her married neighbor, with a skein of incidents featuring people from...
[The entire page is 1959 words long]
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