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1. What is the narrative point of view of The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano?

The novel is written in the first-person point-of-view narration of Rose Napolitano. In Part 1, Chapters 1-5, Rose first narrates seeing her daughter, Addie, in the hospital after giving birth. The following chapters in part one then switches between Rose narrating meeting her husband at a photoshoot for pictures for her Ph.D. to her arguing with her husband about why she did not take the prenatal vitamins she said she would take. In part 2, Rose retells a different version of the prenatal vitamin fight with her husband. As the novel unfolds from that point, Rose narrates her various lives, as she reimagines future possibilities for having and not having a baby.

2. How does the structure of the novel help readers understand Rose’s characterization?

The fragmented, nonlinear structure of Rose’s reimagined lives illustrates the indecisiveness of Rose’s desire to become a mother or not. It mirrors the unstable, complex, and myriad future paths to modern motherhood.

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