Point of View

The novel is written in the first person point of view. The narrating character is Ochs Jones, a writer for a Nashville newspaper who is writing this book to tell the real story behind the assassination of Jimmie Lee Horn, the first black mayor of Nashville, Tennessee. Ochs tells the story through his own first person viewpoint, but he also tells the stories of the various characters in the novel through their own voices. While telling these stories, the point of view shifts to the third person omniscient point of view. However, the reader is aware that Ochs is still there because even during these third person narratives his voice still appears in a type of authorial voice.

The point of view of this novel works because the novel is told through the eyes of a character who was not directly involved in the death of...