Point of View

The point of view of the novel is first person. The narrator, a participant in the events described, is unreliable for several reasons. He relies on memory alone for the details of his story, which stretch back at least a dozen years. He also describes events that he could not have witnessed, based on information he received from people involved. These scenes are recreated from second-hand information, and it is likely that they have altered somewhat in the retelling. Furthermore, the narrator is unreliable because he is describing events that still involve him personally. His wife has recently died, his friend has even more recently died, and the young woman he had thought to make his second wife has gone completely mad. The narrator is too close to the events to be objective. Finally, the story the narrator tells presents a version of himself that is...