Point of View

Salt Slow is a collection of nine short stories, each with a different point-of-view; roughly half are narrated in the present tense, the other half in past tense. “Mantis” is narrated in first person by an unnamed narrator describing her metamorphosis from teenage girl to praying mantis. This narrator also offers insight into the lives and minds of ordinary adolescent girls as she is depicted interacting with her peers, relating their lingo, their numerous insecurities, and obsessions with boys. “The Great Awake” is narrated in first person from the perspective of Janey, a 27-year-old woman who has just experienced the phenomenon of having her Sleep exit her body. Janey explains the ways in which this bizarre, city-wide occurrence impacted others, but the emphasis is on her own melancholy longing for Leonie, her neighbor. “The Collectibles” is told from the first-person perspective of Linda, though she...