Universal Harvester

by John Darnielle

“The house,” said Sarah Jane, reaching back into her purse and retrieving the printout of the frame from when my hand slipped and the front porch came into view. * * * A farmhouse has a way of feeling both timeless and impermanent without ever committing to either side.

“when MY hand slipped”?!?! The book is narrated in 3rd person. Why the sudden slip into 1st person here? An intentional foreshadowing, I presume. Clues point to an unreliable narrator as well.

over the years he’d known lots of men who didn’t want to make spectacles of themselves, whose need to retain their composure often surpassed their desire to be healed.

A sad but true observation.