5. Talk about the book's structure.

[John]

5. Talk about the book's structure.
• Is it a continuous story...or interlocking short stories?
• Does the time-line move forward chronologically?
• Does time shift back & forth from past to present?
• Is there a single viewpoint or shifting viewpoints?
• Why might the author have chosen to tell the story
the way he or she did?
• What difference does the structure make in the way
you read or understand the book?

[[deleted user]]

this volume is linear and follows the main characters over the course of nearly a year

[Patrick]

I agree with BW. Also, the chapters generally focus on one or two sub-plots/stories, around a handful of characters. Just like a soap.

[Anna]

I do think that each story is a little bit of a short story but they eventually all tie together but sometimes when I am reading them I wonder what is the purpose of this chapter.

[John]

@Anna, I wondered the same thing. I saw this as the foundation volume. Volume I was and introduction into the mysteries that are perhaps a substructure, and this volume is the foundation - no mysticism, no mysterious monks, everything is very real, creating the canvas on which Cao will lay out his story . . . perhaps

[Jen]

I agree with all everyone. Like John, I found this to be like a foundation volume but that will depend on what the rest of the volumes are like.

[Pip]

It IS like a soap opera, with everyone obsessed with what others think of them. It is the story of the women of the household, with the exception of Bao-Yu, and so their lives are constrained by seldom leaving the compound. I am assuming that the details of daily life will be changed as the family fortunes dwindle.