Point of View

Most of Pachico’s stories are narrated by a third-person limited narrator, focalized through the story’s protagonist (for example, “Lucky,” “Lemon Pie,” “Armadillo Man,” “Beyond the Cake”). In these stories, the present tense creates an effect of immediacy, which runs throughout the narrative. For example, “Armadillo Man” opens with the sentence, “The Armadillo Man is watching her” (198). The use of the present tense forces the reader to enter into the story’s immediate moment without fully understanding the context of the story. In this way, not only are Pachico’s stories immediately engaging, but also, they are consistently mysterious, for the reader must re-enter each new story’s present moment despite not knowing who the protagonist is or what the particular situation is. This process of displacement and re-adjustment the reader feels parallels the displacement and re-adjustment of the character’s in Pachico’s...