Point of View

The point of view of Everything Under is split between Gretel's first person narrative and the alternating close third person narrations of Margot, Marcus, Sarah, and Fiona. The portions of the novel told from Gretel's point of view are all addressed to Gretel's mother. The direct address in these sections creates a narrative intimacy between Gretel and Sarah. Gretel's second person references to her mother create the simultaneous sensation that Gretel is also addressing the reader. Even those portions of the novel rendered in the third person, therefore, feel as if they are being relayed by Gretel. Because so much of the narrative is consumed by Gretel's work to uncover her mother's history, as well as the stories of her own past, each character's narrative appears filtered through Gretel's investigative lens.

The slippery nature of this wayward point of view successfully mimics Gretel's attempts to...