This Must Be the Place

Content Warning: This section discusses abortion, death, grief, and trauma.

“This would be my first experience of her protean quality, the way she could appear to be a different person from second to second (a major reason, I’ve always thought, that cinematographers loved her).”

Daniel’s initial description of Claudette connects her characterization to The Dissociating Nature of Trauma. Although Daniel is describing her appearance, her “protean quality” suggests that being multiple people simultaneously is part of her identity. It also connects her different identities with the trauma she experienced due to her fame.

“To all appearances, I am a husband, a father, a teacher, a citizen, but when tilted toward the light I become a deserter, a sham, a killer, a thief. On the surface I am one thing, but underneath I am riddled with holes and caverns, like a limestone landscape.”

Daniel’s description of himself and his acknowledgement of his split identity are connected to the seismology motif. Just as the earth has layers, “holes and caverns,” so too does Daniel’s traumatized identity.

“Our sense of different locations began to mesh. One day we grasped that we didn’t need to change tube lines to get from Leicester Square to Covent Garden: they were just five minutes’ walk apart.”

The use of second person in Claudette’s first point of view chapter connects her experience to The Dissociating Nature of Trauma. Although the “our” and “we” in this excerpt refer to her and her college friends, there is a metaphorical nod to Claudette herself being split as a result of what happens in London—both meeting Timou Lindstrom and establishing her acting career.