Point of View

Moreno-Garcia employs a shifting third-person point of view that primarily attaches itself to one of the novel's two central protagonists, Montserrat or Tristán, and works within those perspectives in a limited as opposed to omniscient sense. At times, when the novel delves into its own history, the narration becomes more detached and factual, relaying the past experiences of its characters without much perspective at all; in group sequences, too, the perspective is sometimes muddy or shifting. Furthermore, large passages of the novel are epistolary, written in the first-person perspective of Ewers himself as he chronicles his journey from Germany to México.

The sections written in third-person give Moreno-Garcia the opportunity to dramatize the relationship between Montserrat and Tristán while also giving the reader occasional glimpses into their psychologies and impressions of one another. This device is significant to the novel's development because...