Point of View

The book employs a wide variety of perspectival devices among its stories. Over the course of the book, the author uses first person, second person, third person, past tense, and present tense. Most of the time, each story has only one point-of-view character, but there are exceptions, such as “A Few Normal Things…” and “Casper.” However, even when a story in this collection remains within one character’s perspective, the perspective of the character shifts in subtle ways throughout the narrative. For example, in “Jerry’s Crab Shack: One Star,” the perspective remains constant, but the protagonist often shifts his focus between events and subjects.

The stories in this collection generally develop a character’s perspective through their emotions, particularly their feelings of frustration and confusion. The characters in these stories often face challenges related to misogyny or mental health. Notably, although many of these...