Point of View

The majority of the novel is told from the first person limited point of view of the protagonist, Pilgrim Jones. However, there are two main sections of the novel. The first section contains several short chapters told from Pilgrim's point of view. The second half of the novel contains lengthier chapters told from a third person narrator focusing on the perspectives of the other major characters who are not Pilgrim. Each chapter remains in the present tense, but the story itself is not told chronologically.

Language and Meaning

This author's style transforms minute, seemingly unimportant details into important and lavish moments in the narrative. This places an emphasis on the commonplace beauty of such exotic settings. For example, page 17 is host to a beautiful detail related to a bicycle arriving in the Tanzanian village of Magulu: “There is a brief hiatus of silence, then a...