Point of View

The author’s point of view varies throughout the stories. In the first five fictional stories, the author is not immediately present as a character or speaker. Rather, the author often employs narrators who can report their own experiences but who cannot answer all the questions the reader may have. This is true in “Jim,” where the narrator is only able to describe a few snippets of conversation he had with Jim, leaving the reader in the dark as to Jim’s motivations and fate. This is also true in “Pepe the Cop,” where the reader follows along with Pepe as he investigates the murders and gradually comes to a conclusion. And, finally, this is true of both the narrators in “Two Catholic Tales,” who cross paths with one another but who, neither of them, is capable of making accurate sense of the other person...