Point of View

The novel is written from a third person free indirect point of view. While Beauregard is the novel's main character, the narrator does not strictly attend to his external circumstances and internal concerns. Rather, some chapters shift away from Beauregard's affairs and move inside the lives and minds of his fellow characters. By allowing the third person narrator these flexible capabilities, the author widens the narrative scope. When the narrator moves close to Ronnie, Reggie, Lou Ellen, Lazy, or Jenny's physical locations and internal thoughts, for example, the reader gains access to information Beauregard does not yet possess. The point of view, therefore, heightens the narrative tension through repeated instances of dramatic irony.

Despite the narrator's authoritative and far-reaching capacities, however, she resides most often behind Beauregard's consciousness, therefore illustrating his centrality to the novel. Beauregard is depicted in solitude or isolation more often than...