Structure

Souvankham Thammavongsa’s short story “Edge of the World” starts with the narrator recalling how she and her mother used to watch soap operas and laugh together. The story has a circular structure. The beginning and the end are similar because they both refer to a memory the narrator has of her mother. . In the beginning, the narrator remembers her mother’s laugh and at the end she tries to imitate it alone in her apartment.

The events from the narrator’s childhood are told in chronological order, and then there is a gap in time from when her mother left to the 45-year-old woman that the narrator is now. The majority of the story is told in retrospect as the narrator is looking back which gives a feeling of flashback.

There are a few foreshadowing elements in the story hinting to the mother’s departure. O...