Point of View

The novel is narrated in the past tense by a third-person narrator who switches back and forth between the main characters, Piper and Brendan. At first, Piper seems as if she might be the only focal character in the novel. The narrator focuses exclusively on Piper for the first three chapters while she is in Los Angeles. The reader learns about her life before Westport and experiences the breakup with Adrian and the fallout from the party first-hand.

However, in the fourth chapter, the narrator switches to Brendan. Of note is the fact that his narration does not start until Piper comes into his life, as we see with the first sentence of his first chapter: “Brendan Taggart was the first Westport resident to spot the women” (30). From here on out, the narrator switches back and forth between the characters in separate chapters. The reader...