Point of View

The point of view of this novel at first belongs to the objective narrator. Then as Alessandro begins to recount his wartime experiences to his hiking partner, the point of view shifts largely to Alessandro. The reader thus goes from outsider to insider in this mnemonic narrative. Toward the end of the novel, when Alessandro is an old man looking back on his life, the focus consists of the observing narrator and also that of Alessandro. By means of this device, the reader feels the poignancy of the story, the richness of Alessandro's life, and the importance of love at every turn.

Setting

The temporal setting of the novel is twofold - the present as Alessandro leads a young companion on a mountain hike, and the period of World War I when he himself was a young man who fought as a soldier in the Italian...