Point of View

A House Among the Trees is written in the third person omniscient point of view and is very fluid between characters, shifting back-and-forth between all the main cast. There is a specific focus on Tommy and Nick, but the other characters, such as Merry, get chapters for themselves. The author is also very fluid in scenes. For example, during the scene where Tommy first meets Nick, the narrator says what both are thinking by swapping within the scene. First, Tommy pauses after catching a glimpse of blue shoulder through one of the side lights. Followed by her face, shadowed by two hands cupped against the pane” (34). Just a page later, the readers get Nick’s point of view. “Realizing how rude he must seem looking greedily about as if he’s an estate agent calculating a value, he turns quickly back to his hostess” (35). This...