Point of View

This novel is told from the first-person point of view of Charlie. Consider the opening sentences: “I’m sure I can tell this story. I’m also sure no one will believe it. That’s fine with me” (1). Charlie refers to himself using the first-person pronouns I, I’m, and me. Charlie is the ideal character to tell this story because it is the story of his coming of age. Charlie is able to describe his emotions: “I thought about my father’s drinking years — his lost years. I’d needed to look after myself a lot of the time back then, and I’d been angry. Angry at my mother for dying the way she did, which was stupid because no way was it her fault, but you have to remember I was only seven when she got killed on the goddam bridge” (82). Charlie...