Point of View

Almost the entire narrative is told from the third-person, with the narrator choosing one character's perspective to share at a time. Most of the narration focuses on the points of view of Juke, Elma, Nan, Oliver, and Sterling. However, sometimes the narrator will project into the future, disclosing information none of the characters could possibly know. The narrator will also sometimes include the perspectives of the townspeople more broadly, rendering them a Greek Chorus, who comment on the main action and show how the characters are perceived by others. Occasionally, character's points of view will contradict each other, heightening the mystery of what is real and what is not, and emphasizing the discrepancy between how things seem and how they really are.

Nan's perspective is especially important to the plot development because, while other characters' can reveal their thoughts through dialogue, Nan cannot talk. Given...