Point of View

The novel is written from the third person point of view. Parts I, II, III, and IV all begin with an untitled and unnumbered section. In these sections, the third person narrator assumes an omniscient stance and tone. The narrator, therefore, remains largely unattached from the main characters' consciousnesses, and describes the world in a removed and unaffected manner: "They were dancers," the narrator says in the opening paragraph of the novel, "Their whole lives, nearly. They were dancers who taught dance and taught it well, as their mother had" (3). In this moment, the narrator describes the characters without attachment or emotion, allowing the reader to see the Durant clan from a seemingly outsider perspective. This narrative vantage shifts in the titled chapters of each overarching part. In the titled chapters, the omniscient third person narrator assumes a third person limited stance, following Dara's consciousness...