Action

Action
Tangles progresses at varying rates throughout the memoir. Action refers to the way that the story progresses from one scene to the next, and from one event to another. Tangles uses a wide range of speeds depending on the event. The speed of the action relates closely to Sarah’s involvement with the event.

Slow-Progression
Major events in Sarah’s life progress very slowly in the memoir, taking several pages to depict hours and days in the event. Examples include pages 20 to 26 – a family get together is examined from the airport to the dinner table, deep moments of reflection and emotional discussions are detailed in full, culminating in the first time that Mariam admits she believes she has Alzheimer’s; 27 to 37 – Rob’s sabbatical to Mexico and several key moments are explicitly detailed, including road trips, intimate moments with Donimo, a car accident with a stray dog, flying back to the Canada, and the final trip to the doctor; 48 to 71 – This section covers a 6-week span when Rob left to Mexico to teach and take a vacation. Sarah experiences the worst of the disease, and during this time she bathes, clothes, feeds, and entertains Mariam with the help of Debbie; and 116 to 127 – followed the move to the nursing home, and subsequent death of Mariam.

In these moments, Sarah is with her mother and every detail is covered during the journey. These events make up the bulk of the memoir reflection, and help define the character progression.

Fast-Progression
Crucial story-foundations are briefly covered during the memoir. These sections may include Sarah, such as a childhood memory, but most do not. Many of these sections are only 2 or 3 pages in length, but span years and even decades, helping bring new characters into the story, or provide a perspective on past events.

Examples include pages 10 to 11 – explaining Sarah’s nightmares and how her mother would frequently help her go back to sleep; 12 to 15 – revealing a lifetime of Mariam’s relationships to her sisters, and their parents; 38 to 39 – chronicling Sarah and Hannah’s upbringing, including storytelling, treasured moments, and family dynamic; 74 to 75 – Hannah’s wedding; and 114 – Hannah’s new baby.

These scenes and pages make up important back-story elements, but deviate from the memoir focus. In many cases, the audience can piece together the missing elements with the available memoir information.

Disconnected Scene Placement
Some scenes in Tangles progress across the page in varying frame sizes. The author does this in an effort to add dynamic flow to the memoir. A large frame will be placed next to several tiny frames, meaning there is no ‘correct’ transition, and the audience can choose the direction of scene flow.

Examples include pages 12 – the death of Beatrice and Joe (Mariam’s parents) can be read many ways, but the outcome is always the same; 15 – Mariam and Rob moved several times, meaning Sarah recalls several distinct moments in her childhood and the audience can develop these in any direction; 100 to 101 – moving Mariam to the first floor of the house so that she has more mobility; and 125 – reflecting about the funeral and saying Kaddish every night.

In these scenes, the ordering of the events doesn’t matter, more importantly however, the ordering may not be easily recalled by the author, meaning that those events did occur, and they may have occurred in the way the scenes were laid out, but the scenes could be read in a different left-to-right loop, and the information would still reach the audience in the same way it reached the author – fragmented and slightly disconnected.