Comment on point of view

This novel is told from the viewpoint of Basil Pascali using a first person point of view, told uniquely through the writing of a report to his Excellency, the Sultan. Pascali's narration is filled with metaphors and symbolic descriptions of the world around him, but often has a sense of dishonesty. Pascali himself admits that his entire narrative may be fictional, in an attempt to find solace in the fall of the Empire. Often biased in opinion and scattered in thought, Pascali's narrative is effective, in that it clearly portrays his character as a confused, lonely informant, bitter with the political unrest of the period and desperately seeking acceptance. Further, his information is often highly detailed, as an informant's information would be, which allows the reader to imagine the world in which Pascali is immersed. Further, this first person narrative, told by an informant, allows necessary historical information to be introduced into the plot without seeming forced or deliberate. This wide focus, necessary in a novel with so many characters and twists of theme, is only possible through the first person narrative of a man, whose employment revolves around carefully detailed descriptions of events.