The novel opens with a description of a beach, on the occasion of an unusually high tide. Dispersed amongst the parched sand, the vast bowl of water and unnaturally white birds are several enigmatic statements indicating that this is a pivotal moment.
One page and fifty years later the narrator begins to reveal himself, in a jerky narrative that jumps between present, near past and distant childhood. The erratic structure of the narrative, drawing back layers of memory, replicates somewhat the ebb and flow of the tide. The emphasis on associative memory and perception inevitably invokes Proust. In a more specific detail is there also a tiny, mischievous nod to Ulysses?
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A Rat in the Book Pile 