The structure of this novel is
precise, although not immediately apparent. The different themes are
intermingled. One cuts into another point-blank, then the other resumes and
cuts into the first, and so on until the end. The first example of this
procedure , at the beginning of the book, is the theme of the cemetery, cut
into by that of the gossip at the grocery, then resumed shortly afterwards.
Apart from this peculiarity, as from the middle of the book the themes are
taken up again in the inverse order of their appearance. The last themes of
the first part, that is, become the first of the second part and are thus
retold in reverse. A procedure resembling anamnesis.
Robert Pinget from the
Preface