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What role does transformation play in Grand Central? Transformation is a key element of fiction and of memoir. “A transformation is a dramatic change in form or appearance. An important event like getting your driver’s license, going to college, or getting married can cause a transformation in your life.” In Grand Central, we have a very dramatic event—the protagonist embarks on a love affair with a married man and becomes pregnant. Eventually he leaves her to return to his w

Last week, I wrestled mightily with the question of whether Grand Central is a memoir or a work of fiction, deciding that the story seems to contain elements of both forms but shades more to the memoir side. After a further week of thought and struggle, I agree with my previous assessment. (Yay! A good day.) I think a useful way to think about the story is that Ms. Smart took a particular period in her life—the onset of her affair with Mr. Barker up to the birth of their firs