Points of View

The short stories are told in a variety of perspectives. Most are told in the third person omniscient, although there are some exceptions in which the first person is used. In all cases, however, there is a limit to the amount of inner thoughts and feelings that are expressed by any of the characters. Many of the stories rely on the idea that the reader does not know or cannot understand the past lives of the characters, and details about their backgrounds and their personalities are reduced to the minimum in many instances.

Character development throughout the stories is very stark. The reader is often the observer of a conversation or event that takes place in a public place. The reader is often kept ignorant about the cause of the conversation or event and often has only a little more information than the casual observer of...