Point of View

The novel is written in close third-person with a limited narrator who alternately follows O, Dee, Ian, and Mimi’s perspectives. Each perspective is given at least a few pages in each part, and they vary widely in tone and pacing. For example, O’s perspective is steady and resigned, interspersed with moments of intense anger as the novel progresses, while Mimi’s perspective is written in a wandering, reflective style that reflects her personality. The characters’ diverse interests and motivations create a layered dramatic irony that permeates the novel and highlights its tragic arc. The audience knows Ian’s real evil motivations while O is oblivious to them, and later understand O’s mistaken fury with Dee even though she is at a loss for its cause.

Language and Meaning

By adapting a Shakespearian drama to a 1970s American playground, Chevalier created a stylistic...