So Much Water So Close to Home

Claire narrates the story in the first person, making readers privy to her inner fears in a way that Stuart is not—e.g., the alarm she experiences when followed by the man in the pickup truck. The impact of the murdered woman on Claire is obvious, despite the narration offering little inner monologue; the very fact that she does not fully voice her fears—she repeatedly says she is “thinking” without specifying about what—suggests she finds them too awful to confront directly. Further, the point of view reinforces the distance between Claire and Stuart, underscoring Stuart’s potential guilt and positioning him as an antagonist of sorts. In this way, the story nudges readers to side with Claire and regard Stuart as a threat to her safety.

The sparseness of the story is an important feature in establishing The Pervasiveness of Doubt and Deception. Gaps in the plot not only create mystery (and therefore tension) but reinforce the possibility that Stuart may be withholding details of the woman’s death; there are time jumps in the narrative he offers Claire, and it is often unclear which of the men is doing what. These gaps allow the reader to speculate as to what the truth might be. Indeed, while the funeral-goer Claire meets indicates that the culprits have been caught, no other details of the incident ever emerge. The dialogue also creates ambiguity: Whenever Claire tries to talk about the murdered woman, Stuart skirts around the subject. The distrust and fear she feels are unspoken, only creating more and more dissonance between them. Readers must speculate about the cause of their marital discontent in the same way they must guess at Stuart’s involvement in the woman’s death.