Point of View

The novel alternates between the points of view of Arden and Holt. For the most part, the “present day” chapters set in Janesville in 1905 are told from the perspective of Holt, although both the first and final chapters break this pattern. Holt’s chapters are told in the third person in the present tense with an omniscient narrator. Arden’s life story is, unsurprisingly, told from Arden’s perspective. Unlike the Janesville chapters, the life-story chapters are told in the first person past tense from Arden’s perspective.

The differences in technique between the chapters written from Arden’s perspective and those written from Holt’s perspective serve to heighten the mystery about whether or not Arden is telling the truth about her life. The use of the third person in Holt’s chapters makes his character seem automatically more trustworthy and sincere to the...