Point of View

The novel is written from the first person point of view of the main character, Sil. In the prologue, Sil is narrating from the present. At this point in the novel, Sil is a grown woman living an independent life far away from the settings and circumstances of her childhood. However, when she finds the “Polaroid taken almost sixteen years before, the day [she and her mother] arrived in Island City,” her mind shifts into memories of the past (4). The photograph and these memories in turn incite a temporal shift with the start of Book I. Throughout Books I, II, III, and the majority of Book IV, Sil narrates from her childhood point of view. However, her childhood perspective is always coupled with her adult, reminiscent understanding, thus induces a double-I narrative effect.

Because Sil possesses this double consciousness throughout the novel, she often interrupts...