Point of View

The author presents The Saints of Swallow Hill in the third person point of view. This third person narrator, however, is not omniscient. Rather, the third person narrator’s vantage point is limited to the distinct lenses of Del Reese and Rae Lynn Cobb. This means that in all of the chapters marked with Del’s name, the third person narrator inhabits Del’s consciousness and describes the narrative world the way that Del is seeing, experiencing, and processing it. In all of the chapters marked with Rae Lynn’s name, the narrator in turn inhabits Rae Lynn’s consciousness and renders the narrative world according to her particular point of view. In Chapter 1, “Del,” for example, while describing Del’s relationships with women, the narrator says that the women "were addicted to him, tender toward him, most important of all, protective of him, swearing...