Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : None
None
Always the nonconformist, Jamaica Kincaid wrote a novel that shatters all seven of Booker's stinkin' plots. Here's why:
- There are only two real characters (the narrator and "you"), neither of whom actually does much of anything.
- There are few scenes; we mostly just float around the island and learn its history.
- There's no plot. This one's self-explanatory, right?
Ultimately, A Small Place reads more like non-fiction than fiction in that it explores a single subject from a variety of different angles. In a book like this, the story is really about increasing the reader's knowledge about the subject at hand.