Point of View

The point-of-view of the novel is a combination of first-person and limited third-person, both relating to Sissie, the novel’s protagonist. The first-person portions of the text are generally relegated to the passages that are more experimental in form, such as her love letter to My Precious Something and the poetic passages, which can be interpreted as direct missives from Sissie’s thoughts. The experimental style of these passages reflects Sissie’s own personality and thoughts, broken free from the shackles of western European conventions—such as the form of the novel.

The prose portions of Our Sister Killjoy are given from the limited third-person. Through this perspective, the reader gets to see some of Sissie’s thoughts and impressions about the world around her, without entering fully into her consciousness. This distancing effect in some sense mimics Sissie’s own prickly and caustic personality...