Point of View

Frances is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. Because she is the narrator, hers is the dominant perspective. Because she is an emotionally repressed narrator, she is sometimes too self-absorbed for her perspective to be a reliable guide for the reader. For most of the novel, for example, she has an undeclared love for her best friend, Bobbi. Therefore, she focuses so much on how she feels about Bobbi that her understanding of Bobbi's own emotions is obscure. She never acknowledges that Bobbi is jealous of her boyfriend, Nick. She does not know Bobbi is still attracted to her until Bobbi tells her.

Other characters' perspectives are never dominant, but Frances' perspective is more trustworthy when her impressions confirmed by other characters. For example, Frances' impression that her boyfriend, Nick, is emotionally dominated by his wife, Melissa, is supported by both Bobbi and Evelyn...