Point of View

The story is told from the first person, past tense point of view – although as noted elsewhere in this analysis, the summaries of the sections that take place in New York are written in the present tense to reflect that they are taking place in the contemporary life of narrator/protagonist Cat. The particular value of the first person perspective is that it puts the reader in the same position as Cat – observing what Marlena does and does not do, trying to understand her, and wondering what is going on in her life that she does not communicate.

This aspect of narrative point of view is also significant in terms of the book’s thematic point of view. Most particularly, it is an important component of the book’s consideration of the nature and experience of addiction, in that the experience of wondering what is...