Point of View

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto is primarily told from the point of the view of The Spirit of Music, the literal embodiment of music. It is also told from the point of view of mourners at Frankie Presto's funeral, many of them famous music industry figures. Both sections are narrated in first-person. The bulk of the chapters are told from The Spirit of Music's perspective, with the mourners' narration interspersed a handful of times in every part. The Spirit of Music is an omniscient narrator and admits to knowing everything that has happened and will happen to his students of music. The Spirit of Music opens his tale at the end of Frankie's story, his funeral, and traces Frankie's life back chronologically up until Frankie's death.

Albom's decision to insert non-linear accounts from the funeral mourners adds suspense to the novel. Through their stories...