Fractured, Cyclical
Meridian does more time-bending than Back to the Future. Seriously.
After all, the novel starts with the beginning of its final scene. Weird, huh? Then we jump back in time to Meridian's college days for a bit, before going back even further into her childhood. Although the novel proceeds relatively straightforwardly from that point, there are still plenty of little jumps and dips that might throw you off.
By using this technique, Walker has created a novel much more concerned with themes than plot. We have to see Meridian's "sallow, unhealthy" skin in the opening chapter to appreciate her sudden transformation at the end (1.1.62). We have to see how Anne-Marion berates her former friend with "a litany of accusations" to understand her final letter to Meridian (1.1.55). By emphasizing these concepts immediately, Walker is telling us what we need to focus on.
The novel would've been way different had it been structured chronologically. Instead of focusing on the themes, we'd spend our time worrying about how Meridian ends up. Though that might be a good book in and of itself, it likely wouldn't hit its major themes as hard as Meridian does now.