Point of View

The point of view in The Mars Room regularly shifts back and forth from first person to third person omniscient. The majority of the novel is narrated in the first person by Romy Hall, but Sammy Fernandez, Romy’s friend, also narrates a short chapter (Chapter 13) in the first person. The remainder of the chapters --which, significantly, follow male characters (Hauser, Doc and Kennedy) are rendered in the third person omniscient point of view. This discrepancy allows for the reader to be more invested in the lives of the Romy and Fernandez; the first person voice creates a tone of confessional intimacy, while the third person voice conveys events with less emotional weight.

Romy’s narration is blunt and forthcoming, which conveys to the reader both her depth of intense experiences and her status as a prisoner with nothing to lose. While her recollections regularly...