“I am always drawn back to places where I have lived, the houses and their neighborhoods.”

The narrator begins the novel by explaining how he is drawn back to certain places where he lived. While the brownstone building was his home for a while, it is the people who lived in the house—namely, Holly—who captivate him. The focus on physical spaces rather than the individuals who occupy them suggests that the narrator is still unsure of the real subject of his story. Holly, rather than any place or even the narrator himself, is the true protagonist of the book but the narrator is still struggling to come to terms with her actual character.

“Dead. Or in a crazy house. Or married. I think she's married and quieted down and maybe right in this very city.”

The narrator speculates on where Holly might be. For years, she had denied him a neat end to her story and he is forced to invent wildly different versions of a potential resolution for this narrative. Even if she was in the same city and did not contact the narrator, he would prefer this to not knowing. He chooses to believe her story has an ending as he needs the comfort and neatness that this would provide.