Point of View

The novel is written from a free indirect third person point of view. This means that the third person narrator shifts between the Alvarado family members' consciousnesses throughout the narrative. These shifts between Keila, Oscar, Claudia, Olivia, and Patricia's psyches enacts their simultaneous individuality and familial connection. In the opening pages of "January," the narrator introduces this narrative pattern via Keila's movements through the family home as she searches for her granddaughters: "She first went out the back door to the end of the yard and checked in the detached garage, home to everything but cars. Oscar had used the right side of the space as a gym before he acquired the habit of watching the Weather Channel for eight hours at a time . . . Next to the exercise equipment were three bikes . . . The blue one belonged to Claudia, Keila's firstborn. The pink one was Olivia's...