Narration and Sense of Time in "A Pale View of Hills"

The story begins from Etsuko's point of view in the present (which involves daughter Niki visiting from England), but frequently moves in and out through time. Etsuko reflects on her encounters with Sachiko in the past, before Niki is even born, and even in that dimension, the flashbacks involve other characters who are not involved with the event that made her think of that instance in the first place.

For example, when Etsuko is at the park with Niki, she thinks back to Sachiko and Mariko, which then causes her to think about her father-in-law, Mrs. Fujiwara, and other past events in her life. All of this is sparked by seeing a little girl on a swing set. Etsuko is caught up in memory and this is triggered by a small, seemingly insignificant event. This book exemplifies the power of memory — the ability to better analyze a situation with a retrospective lens — but also the dangers associated with it, such as falsely remembering things. Because this story is told by a first person narrator, it already has unreliability embedded in it, and the fact that so much of the story is told retrospectively makes Etsuko even more of an unreliable narrator, so we the reader must heed extra caution and find a way to analyze Etsuko's memories objectively, and keeping in mind that even those may be susceptible to falsification and must be read with a critical eye.