Point of View

David Shafer tells his novel “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” in the third-person omniscient perspective. Given that Shafer has employed three diverse, primary characters that, for the majority of the novel act independently of one another in different parts of the world, the third-person narrator provides a common, unifying voice against what at first seem to be three unconnected storylines. This helps the reader to navigate each character’s spheres of action with ease until all three ultimately intertwine. The reader is also given a privileged view of events through the omniscient nature of the narrative, learning things before the characters do themselves. For example, the reader learns that Ned is not truly working for the Committee very early on in the novel, while the reader learns alongside Leila just what the Committee is long before Mark does. This provides important contextual information for the reader to...