"Timelessness in a Reversed Narrative Act: The Quest for Eternity in Baxter's First Light"

Abstract

This article attempts to explain a reversed narrative act in a postmodern novel, First Light, by a contemporary American writer, Charles Baxter. The act suggests a secular quest of immortality. It is echoed in the novel by the characters’ perpetual involvement in acts of memory that revive their personal past and create a sense of temporal permanence.