Point of View

The novel is written from the third person point of view. Throughout the novel, this third person narrator shifts behind Harry Brettigan's, Alma Brettigan's, and Christina Lobdell's vantage points. Part One follows Brettigan's perspective exclusively. Part Two presents the narrative world through Christina's lens. Part Three begins with the narrator situated once more behind Brettigan's lens, but shifts behind Alma's in the latter chapter of the section. The chapters collected in Parts Four and Five, shift back and forth between all three characters' perspectives. By taking this formal approach to point of view, the author nuances and complicates the narrative's overarching stakes and subtextual thematic interests.

The chapters in which the narrator is following Brettigan's point of view contrast with those in which Alma's or Christina's perspectives are more centralized. For example, in Chapter 14, the narrator is situated closest to Brettigan, and thus describes the...