Point of View

Stray City employs multiple points of view in an effort to construct a fair representation of how the characters in the novel interact with their surroundings and interpersonal relationships.

Part 1 of the novel opens with the first-person narrative of Andrea, a twenty-something lesbian protagonist living in Portland, OR. Andrea is honest about the city she lives in and sees a lot of herself in the way Portland was in the 90s, “broke, struggling with employment, mostly white, mostly hopeful even though there was no real change in sight” (3). Andrea is clear and concise in the way she presents the facts of her life. She is honest about her conflicting feelings and attraction to Ryan. Andrea is clear, however, about her sexual identity as a lesbian, in spite of sleeping with Ryan.

Andrea’s point of view gives insight into the ways her two families are...