As was already shown in class by the presentation, the events of the book Slow River, while mixed up and shown out of order, can be lined up to form the majority of Lore's life. Beginning in Chapter 2 when Lore is at the age of 5, and ending with her rejoining her Father again at the end of the novel.

However, on first glance it seemed like these events were just thrown together in random order....in a sort of flashback-y way. A little rough, but not terribly unusual.

As it turns out though, a closer inspection reveals what I would call a pattern in the chronology. Or rather, several patterns that relate to one another.

For starters, it seems that there are two to three separate time-"lines" going, as the story rotates between Lore's early life (age 5 to her kidnapping and escape) her time with Spanner (beginning with being taken in from the street and ending with Lore leaving the flat) and her life as Sal Bird. Although I haven't taken the time to check in detail, these seem to rotate in a sort of order (usually early, mid, then late) with each section bringing another portion of the particular time period.

An interesting setup to watch in action, and I found it even more so with the fact that the "sections" started getting relatively shorter and closer to the other time periods. In my mind, I pictured the three timelines as "strands" of time weaving through space, though they weaved together closer and closer until they finally met in the end.

A little bit of an odd way to put it I suppose, but that really is what went through my mind. That and the fact that I could finally put together the entirety of Lore's life and thus understand the story a lot better.

A very good read....though I wish a little that we could find out more of what happened in the end, even if it was only a sort of epilogue....