What is the author's tone in the essay collection, Unreality of Memory?

Over the course of the essays collected in The Unreality of Memory, Gabbert marries a range of tonal registers on the page. In each essay, she alternates between familiar and colloquial registers, and academic and interrogative registers. In spite of these tonal shifts, Gabbert’s authorial voice remains consistent throughout. Gabbert’s tone, in turn, consistently straddles the familiar and accessible, and the inquisitive and exploratory. In this way, she not only humanizes herself, but allows the reader to witness her thinking and searching on the page. Each essay also ends with a return to Gabbert’s first person perspective, as she reflects upon her own life in the context of the research she has presented in the previous pages. “Sleep No More,” for example, ends with the lines: “My own past suffering is often a great source of comfort to me. This must mean I’ve never really suffered” (186). Her tone is, as always, authentic and raw. She adopts a confessional register, thus underscoring her humanity, even in the face of challenging ethical and political discussions.