Point of View

The novel is written in the first person. The narration uses the present tense when referring to events in the main storyline, and it uses the past tense during flashbacks. There are two narrators: Benson and Mike. The novel’s first section is narrated by Benson, the second is narrated by Mike, and the third is narrated by Benson. These shifts between Benson and Mike’s perspectives help to give a full illustration of their relationship, from both sides of it. There are ways in which each of them is unaware of certain elements of the other’s perspective. For example, Benson is unaware that Mike was planning to break up with him before learning of Eiju’s cancer. However, despite—or perhaps because of—the rising tensions in their relationship, they are both in increasing unspoken agreement that their relationship has run its course...