Written with incredible vividness, Ward has a truly a unique narrator in Esch. The effortlessness in expressions celebrates the malleability of language. I found myself gasping in awe at some passages. The cost of survival-needs induced by poverty through the loss of affection and hardening of the heart was explored, & depicted through parent-child & familial bonds - also, through the experience of first love. Although the lyricism did at times suspended the flow of the story (i.e. plot), it wasn't highly disruptive & the solid ending more than made-up for it.