Point of View

This novel is told from the point of view of a third-person omniscient narrator. Consider the opening of the first chapter: “The old house was a sweatbox in the summer, the heat along with Clementine’s frustration trapped inside” (1). The second chapter focuses on Clementine’s sister, Barb: “That night, as they ate pizza, Barb watched her sister pretend that Steve was still on a business trip” (17). The third chapter focuses on Wendy, the third central character in the novel: “Thousands of miles away in Boca Raton, in a gated community for active senior citizens, Wendy Wise’s eye started to twitch in the middle of a self-guided meditation class” (35).

The narrator focuses on each of these three characters in turn, keeping the reader from becoming to emotionally close to any one of the three women. The narration style allows the reader to feel sympathetic...