Love and existentialism

As the male voice-over at the beginning of Dreams of Leaving self-consciously (first person) looks back (past tense) nine years from the relative wisdom of early middle age, he declares his intention to select and interpret his life as the structure for the coming narrative. An innocent from the provinces, William arrives in the big city and finds sexual experience, the pick-up in a cinema intercut with steamy scenes from a South American movie to imply a casual sexual promiscuity.

One night, 30 feet across the newsroom, however, William (still unnamed) sees a woman, the object of his subsequent attention. As Colin, who is buying hash from her companion in the newsroom, asks, ‘Are you going to tell me where it comes from?’ and receives the teasing answer ‘No’ (p. 13), Caroline has entered the newsroom from behind a glass partition at the back of the frame. As Colin continues with, ‘I'll just take a look’, Caroline draws the eye from left to right as she passes behind him. She is followed in focus by the camera to the centre of the frame in front of the continuing deal and reaches a still point on ‘This looks first rate’ (p. 14).