Point of View

In Family Meal, Washington employs the narrative perspectives of Cam, TJ, and Kai; in this way, he suggests a deep emotional intertwinement between the lives of these men. While the novel begins with a long section focusing on Cam’s life prior to his stint in rehab, Washington eventually assumes the narrative perspectives of Kai and TJ. In both a thematic and a formal sense, their lives become constituent parts of the same story. In this way, Washington emphasizes Cam’s realization, at the end of the novel, that “we need everyone. Like, it’s a group effort… It takes all of these people to make one person’s life okay. One person can’t do it for you by themselves. I don’t think I ever really understood that, and now I do. It’s our responsibility to take care of each other” (284). Through...