Abstract

In the novel, Another Book About Another Broken Heart , a young, female protagonist and narrator struggles to come to terms with lost love and to make that process mean something substantial, both to herself and to the ideal reader of her imagination. The first-person narrative voice drives the piece, filtering the action through the perspective of the neurotic, obsessive Katy, whose break-up with her boyfriend of one year is driving her to distraction, to older men and to writing. Due to Katy's tendency to self-consciously comment on the narrative as a template she is constructing for us, the reader is reminded to question the filter through which we are viewing these events. The reader is not alone in this project, for Katy herself is alternately confused, amused and saddened by herself and by her story. Katy begins the book on a mission to forget about her ex-boyfriend, Brian, but he manages to infiltrate her narrative at almost every turn. He is present as an influence when she forms a bond with her new friend, Janet, or when she encounters a not-so-naively trusted father-figure; his mental entity occupies attention even when she meets Brian himself, and again when she develops a bizarre friendship with a neighbour afflicted by Tourette's Syndrome. While her disillusionment with love forms the underlying drive of the narrative, events take on symbolic, metaphoric and cathartic importance as she makes sense of her life by transforming it into words.