Point of View

The Sound of Things Falling is written from the first-person point of view of the main character, Antonio Yammara. Therefore, the narrative belongs to Antonio, as he is telling his own story in his own words. As an academic and an intellectual, Antonio has a keen eye for detail and an intimate relationship with language. He therefore saturates his first-person account with layered and complex descriptions. While some passages of Antonio’s narrative display a confessional tone, others are more withholding. This latter effect is because Antonio’s descriptive, elaborate language often shrouds his true meaning or emotional experience. For example, in Chapter 1, Antonio begins his story detailing the hippopotamus’s escape rather than describing his experiences or his relationship with Ricardo: “I also learned that the hippopotamus had not escaped alone: at the time of his flight he’d been accompanied by his mate...