Point of View

This novel is narrated by Pew, the central character. Pew narrates from the first-person point of view. In the first sentence of the novel, Pew acknowledges his reader: “If you ever need to — and I hope you never need to, but a person cannot be sure — if you ever need to sleep …” (3). This opening sentence gives the reader the feeling that Pew is telling the story to him.

Pew records what happens around him during the week after Pew is discovered sleeping in a church is a small Southern town. He is unreliable in that he knows only what he is told by the people who try to interact with him. There are frequent conversations, such as the one between Jack and Steven after Pew leaves the Bonner house to look at the moon. Pew does not hear the conversations, but the reader can assume...