On Narrative Structure

Roger Bergman, director of Justice and Peace Studies at Creighton University, has been an enthusiastic supporter of The Book of Mev, assigning it in his senior seminar class for the last three years. When he sent me an email in which he commented on the structure of the book, I asked him to elaborate. Here’s what he has to say:

Mark, I’ve attached the handout I give my students outlining something of the cross-connecting or inter-related construction of the chapters. This is to suggest one might read the book in a non-linear fashion, eg, read all the letters, or all the gospels, or all the poems, or all the Human Form Divine chapters, etc. Of course, the whole book is in the gospel pattern in its three parts. More generally, I’ve just been impressed that you found a way to include such diverse sorts of materials that complement and enrich one another. Even a straight-through linear reading turns out not be to strictly linear! 29 ways (or however many) of looking at Mev Puleo. And the three Kerouac epigraphs are perfect. The narrative is certainly clear and compelling but it’s not just a begin here end there affair. I suppose my ultimate compliment is that it’s so obviously a work of love. For Mev, obviously, and all she stood for and wrestled with, but also in the making of the book itself. Construction in that sense.

Repeated chapter titles/themes with # of repetitions (some overlapping)

Writing /4
Face to Face /6
Seeing the World /4
Poverty and Riches /3
Being Present /3
Gratitudes /2
Exchanges /3
Meanwhile, Elsewhere in the World /5 (Haiti, Colombia, East Timor, Chiapas, Iraq)
Dissidents /5
Love Letter /4
Reading /6
Sitting /2
God /5
Accompaniment /6
Poem /4
Crisis /3
The Gospels /4 (According to Ilza, Maria Goreth, Ann, Mev) and The State Department
The Human Form Divine /4
Day in the Life /3
Prayer /4
A School /3
Mutual Aid /3
Uprising /2
Nicknames /2
Community /6
Letting Go /5
Remembering the Dead /6
Bearing Witness /4
Hair /2
Letter /5
Facing the Facts /4

Singular titles/themes: Life without Mozart, A Few Words with the Pope, Peril, Perspicacity, Good-bye, Love’s Mansion, Powerless, Fortitude, Lamentation, New Life

Part One: July 1988—February 1994 [discernment of vocation and ministry]

Part Two: Spring 1994—January 12, 1996 [the passion and crucifixion of cancer]

Part Three (and Prologue): January 1996—March 2003 [life after Mev]