Point of View

The entire novel is written from a third-person point of view, though its perspective is attached exclusively to its protagonist, Cushla Lavery. This decision is important for the novel's themes and aims because its apprehension of broad political strokes requires a limited perspective (and, resultantly, a limited understanding) through which to filter these events. Furthermore, the third-person limited perspective is essential in the strategies that Kennedy uses in characterizing her protagonist.

The limited nature of the perspective of the narration helps create a kind of funneled claustrophobia about the events taking place in the novel. Small, subtle actions from other characters register with Cushla as deeply significant and often threatening, creating a sensation of paranoia in which seemingly mundane events produce feelings of panic, fear, and chaos in the novel's central character. The decision to filter these events through the obsessive lens of one character...