Point of View

The novel is told in the first person present by Edie, the main character. Edie’s narration is central to the story. Everything readers hear, see, feel, or smell throughout the novel comes through the lens of her perspective. Edie’s voice is so strong that even simple, plot-moving sentences are thick with rich language and evocative images. Edie as a character is so tied up with the actual content of the novel that it is seemingly impossible to draw a line between where one ends and the other begins. Edie uses a metaphor to explain herself to Eric, telling him he can ask her anything because she is an open book, but even as she says this she is “thinking of all the men who have found it illegible. I made mistakes with these men. I dove for their legs as they tried to...