Protagonist Claudia Hampton tells us from her deathbed
that she is writing "a history of the world." The book is much more than a historical
novel--it examines the way language creates reality--but it is certainly set against the
backdrop of many specific historical events and the way they were interwoven into
Claudia's life. Such specific events as World Wars I and II (the first of which took
Claudia's father's life and the second of which brought her love), the rise of
Communism, and the Hungarian Revolution support the concept of the book as an overview
of history.
Claudia reveals to us that she was a historian
in her own right and a correspondent who covered the Rommel campaign in Egypt. These
historical events highlight the reminiscences of Claudia's personal life and show the
intermingling of the personal and the public.
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