Point of View

Throughout his collection, "A Lucky Man," Brinkley employs a range of points of view, alternating between first, third, and third person limited narratives. Each of the points of view lends a distinct level of entrance into the story in which Brinkley uses it. The first person stories ("No More Than a Bubble," "J'ouvert, 1996," "Everything the Mouth Eats," and "Infinite Happiness") allow the reader immediate access to each of the protagonist's interiors.

The characters at the center of these first person accounts actively seek to understand the complexities of their pasts, and the ways memory or childhood affect their current psychic evolution or perception of the world. In "No More Than a Bubble," Ben's first person narrative acts as a sort of all-encompassing confession. Though Ben fails to reveal a secret at the party, the entire story, becomes Ben's real secret. Withholding little from the reader...