Point of View

The majority of Seethaler's novel deploys a third-person limited perspective which aligns itself to the experiences of Franz as he navigates life in Vienna. For the most part, the reader is exposed to particular political developments in the country and happenings in Franz's personal life at the same speed and time that he is exposed to them, creating a sense of synergy between the reading experience and the emotional developments that Franz goes through as he matures into adulthood. This decision also allows Seethaler to obscure some of the novel's plot points behind the veil of Franz's naivety; his relationship with Anezka, for instance, is transparently doomed to the perceptive reader, but is allowed to exist as a beacon of hope for Franz because he does not seem aware of this. The dramatic possibilities of this relationship, then, are preserved by the perspective Seethaler chooses...