Point of View

The narrator has a somewhat omniscient third-person point of view, but he speaks like one telling a story. When it helps the story for the narrator to know what is going to happen next, or what someone is thinking, he tells the reader. Other times, the narrator holds back on knowledge in order to leave the reader in suspense. The narrator hops from explaining the inner thoughts of one character to the next, including the thoughts of non-characters, such as the designers of the airport. Sometimes, even the motivations of inanimate objects are discussed. For example, when the check-in desk explodes, it is described as having gotten "fundamentally fed up with being where it was." (Chapter 2, p. 13) Most chapters focus on the viewpoint of one specific character, but the narrator will often mention, as an aside, that the character is right or wrong in their thoughts...