Point of View

The novel deploys a third-person point of view that rather gratuitously shifts between each of the novel's characters; the perspectives of Adeleine, Claudia, Edith, Edward, Paulie, and Thomas are all occupied at some point in time. The shifting point of view allows Alcott to create a balanced and even-handed portrayal of the community that resides in Edith's building, a structural trick that serves as a kind of argument for the communal lifestyles that Alcott fiercely advocates for in the text itself. Meanwhile, the decision to use a shifting and limited perspective allows Alcott to leap into the traumas in her characters' pasts, creating a kind of psychological kaleidoscope through which the plot of the novel is refracted.

Alcott's desire to give equal weight to each of her characters' perspectives is powerful in that it refuses to label any of them as central over anyone else...