Form and Problem-Solving

Formally, the first thing you notice about American Abductions are its sentences. They are long, each making up the entirety of a three- to ten-page chapter. There are thirty-seven of these chapters, arranged into six parts, and most of them take their names from a character who has been deported from the United States—or, in the language of the novel, an American abductee—who is defined by their relation to a family member from whom they have been separated: “Roberto’s Father” and “Juliet’s Mother,” for example.