What is the narrator point of view in the novel, Victory City?

The novel is written from the point of view of an unnamed and unidentified narrator. This narrator has a peripheral presence throughout the Victory City narrative. However, they do allude to their role in relaying Pampa Kampana’s “immense narrative poem about Bisnaga” at the start of Part 1, “Birth,” Chapter 1 (3). After discovering Pampa Kampana’s lost text, the narrator says that they heard “for the first time the full account of the kingdom that began and ended with a burning and a severed head. This is that story, retold in plainer language by the present author, who is neither a scholar nor a poet but merely a spinner of yarns, and who offers this version for the simple entertainment and possible edification of today’s readers (3, 4). Therefore, the narrator is disseminating Pampa Kampana’s history of Bisnaga in an accessible manner. They believe that Pampa’s account is not only an essential historical document, but an amusing and diverting tale to which the masses deserve access. Because they are concealing their identity, they use first person plural pronouns when referring to themselves.

Throughout the novel, the narrator’s voice and authorial role are most evident within those italicized narrative asides that pepper the narrative. In such passages, which appear intermittently throughout Victory City, the narrator provides commentary upon Pampa’s original writings. In these moments, the narrator will not only clarify potentially confusing aspects of Pampa’s account, but will muse upon the veracity and authenticity of Pampa's descriptions. For example, in Part 2, “Exile,” after Pampa and her companions settle in the Forest of Women, the narrator remarks upon the seemingly impossible nature of the events Pampa describes. Although unsure if Pampa’s writings are meant as “poetry” or as “a fable like so many others,” the narrator holds that “either it’s all true, or none of it is, and we prefer to believe in the truth of the well-told tale” (122, Rushdie’s italics). The author is therefore using moments such as this one for the furtherance of his explorations concerning fiction and truth, myth and reality. No matter how fantastical a story might appear, both the narrator and Rushdie are arguing, it still has the power to expose pertinent and essential truths about the human experience.