Point of View

The narrative unfolds from a pair of structurally balanced, intertwined points of view – those of the book’s two protagonists, newlyweds Florence and Edward. The narrative spends close to equal time examining their separate pasts, shared present, and splintered future: although the book’s chronicle of the latter is focused more on Edward, the book is, for the most part, relatively equal in terms of the amount of focus that each character receives. Here it is also important to note that while they are both protagonists, they are also both antagonists, each confronting, challenging, and triggering change in the other.

In terms of authorial point of view, the key point to note is that the author seems intent upon making both characters right and both characters wrong, making them complex and self-contradictory in the way that people in general tend to be, particularly (and more...