Point of View

The entire novel is written in the third-person point of view, and the narrator is relatively omniscient, often making references to events from the past or the future that are relevant to plot points unfolding in the novel's present. However, there are four slightly different iterations of this narrator: one that is attached to Rosalie, one that is attached to Edwin, one that is attached to Asia, and one that is simply a purveyor of historical fact, a kind of chorus.

The sections of the novel narrated through Rosalie's point of view tend to be focused more on the subtle interactions taking place between the novel's characters. Rosalie is largely devoid of personal ambitions, and she is also often relegated to the sidelines of the family drama, which means that, as a narrative vehicle, she provides the most neutrality of the three Booth siblings that...