Similarities Between Paul Harding And Tinkers

Paul Harding is the author of the novel Tinkers along with it’s sequel, Enon. Both novels incorporate emotionally sensitive topics such as the reality of death and mourning, which are subtly highlighted by Harding’s literary style. Harding presents his novels through altered states of consciousness such as dreams, hallucinations, and recollections of memories. Through the narrator’s various and shifting states of consciousness, the plot is developed in reverse, revealing aspects of suppressed emotions that are only distinguishable due to the speaker’s current mental state. As the main characters’ perspectives develop through their past actions over the course of the novels, a raw interpretation of death, mourning, and relationships is developed
as a result of the narrator’s unfiltered, free flowing thoughts enabled by their semi-conscious states.