Point of View

The novel is written in the first person and the past tense. The story is consistently written form the narrator’s point of view. As a result, all of the information in the novel is either from the narrator’s firsthand experiences, or from experiences/information that she has acquired secondhand. Although the narrator is often a passive spectator to other events, her perspective is important in shaping the themes of the novel. For example, the narrator has anxieties about being an aging, middle-aged woman in a misogynistic society. The narrator sometimes digresses to discuss subjects related to those dynamics and anxieties. As a more passive observer, the narrator provides illuminating commentary on the words and actions enacted by other characters.

Although the narrator is technically the sole point-of-view character, the novel also incorporates perspectives of other characters via their words and actions. For example...