Point of View

The novel is narrated by an omniscient narrator who alternates between the second-person and third-person point of view. Consider the opening sentence: “Everyone who knew Benjamin Ovich, particularly those of us who knew him well enough to call him Benji, probably knew deep down that he was never the sort of person who would get a happy ending” (1). In this particular quote, the narrator is writing in the second-person point of view. The narrator sometimes uses this point of view to address the reader directly, drawing him into the story: “Do you want to understand the people who live in two hockey towns? Really understand them? Then you need to know the worst that they are capable of” (8).

This style of narration allows the narrator to tell the stories of both Hed and Beartown without being biased toward either village. He associates himself with both...