Point of View

In Entertaining God, Walker writes in the third person with four alternating narrators with different points of view. The first perspective given is John's, a 15-year-old boy who has just escaped with a gorilla he has made his savage idol. The second perspective given is the gorilla's; it is a brief narrative but shows his thoughts are more on the food and wine he is smelling than anything John is doing. The third point of view given is found in the second section-John's father is in the last moments of his life and the reader is privy to his thoughts and memories. The final point of view given is in the last section, in which John's mother reminisces about her past, about life after John's death, and about how things are in the present. In this way, Walker provides insight into this family.

Setting

In Entertaining...