the geography of you and me by jennifer e smith

Yet even this is further disputed later in the novel as more is revealed about Lucy. Smith portrayed Lucy outside the common stereotypes of a 16-year-old girl with wealthy parents living in New York, aside the ever-present theme of the rich parents rarely paying attention to their children. The novel focuses on their quest to try and close the emotional distance between them whilst battling against seas of increasing physical distance. It helped understand where exactly these two where coming from as individuals and not as Lucy and Owen (in the elevator). This plays back and forth throughout the novel as both of them wonder whether the other reciprocates their feelings and if their starry night meant the same to the other. The night they spend together on the roof leaves a permanent indent in both Lucy and Owen whilst Jennifer E Smith adds that hint of frustration by dashing them with a spell of teenage hysteria. The two are stuck due to a citywide blackout and are brought closer as the minutes tick by into hours whilst trying to help each other survive the blistering heat of the New York summer. Lucy Patterson and Owen are stuck in an elevator – or rather a lift as we call it – in an uptown, New York apartment building, inches away from each other but several worlds apart in character and mind. The book opens with the starting pinpoint of an extended metaphor in relation to darkness embodying the incapability of both characters to dissect and determine their emotions for one another in that starting moment.

The geography of you and me by jennifer e smith