Point of View

Szabó uses a limited third-person point of view to narrate the novel in the past tense, largely from Gina’s perspective. Because the perspective is primarily constrained to Gina’s immediate thoughts as the action unfolds, the narration is often unreliable and prone to hyperbole, which both produces comic relief — particularly during scenes involving the stern teachers of the Matula — and tension, especially when the reader receives evidence contrary to Gina’s speculations. For example, when she has a midnight rendezvous with Feri and believes his lies without questioning them, the narrator writes, “she was hoping he would say something personal … [but] perhaps these young men working in the resistance and busying themselves with heroic deeds never spoke about such personal things as love” (267), showing how Gina deludes herself into believing that Feri is whisking her away in a romantic fashion, even though he never...