Point of View

The book is written in first person from Sara Smolinsky's point of view. The view is limited only to those things she can see, though the reader will also learn things Sara knows or remembers. For example, she recalls little from her childhood before the family's arrival in America but she knows about her mother's childhood from the stories her mother tells. The point of view is not overly limiting in this instance though it does leave some questions. For example, Sara runs away from home while her parents are working and living in a store they buy in Elizabeth, New Jersey. When Sara returns, they are no longer in the store but there is no indication what happened to the business.

Sara tells the story as she lives it but she also leaves out many details. The reader learns she goes to college in a...