George V. Higgins’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle—with the fresh examination
of another narrative, John O’Hara’s “Appearances.” In chapter 11, I then loop
this link into those on character narration, as I theorize reliable narration and
consider the synergies between narration and dialogue in Jhumpa Lahiri’s
“The Third and Final Continent.” That discussion also completes the discus-
sion of probable improbabilities in chapter 2. In chapter 12, I pull together the
various links in my discussion of character narration, as I offer an overview of
reliable, unreliable, and deficient narration. Finally, in chapter 13, I finish this
book’s chain-link construction of rhetorical poetics by examining the interac-
tions between character narration, occasions of telling, and the arrangement
of narrative segments in Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love.
Even as I engage in this chain-link examination of resources, my rhetori-
cal poetics remains grounded in the principles I articulate in the introduction.
The clearest evidence of that grounding is my recurring attention to narrative
progression and to the affective, ethical, and aesthetic effects of author-audi-
ence interactions.
CONSTRUCTINg A RHETORICAL POETICS • 65