Point of View

The novel is written in the first person point of view. The main character and narrator is James Ballard, a young Englishman who has recently survived a car crash that left another man dead. Ballard meets a man obsessed with car crashes while attempting to deal with the emotional aftermath of his own car crash. Ballard tells the story of this other man, expressing his obsession and his own part in it, leading to the tale of his friend's death in a car crash.

The point of view of this novel is unique in that it is almost autobiographical, as though the writer were telling a non-fiction story rather than a fictional story. The author of the novel even gives the main character his own name. This point of view adds a sense of realism to the novel that is unnerving, leaving the reader questioning their...