Point of View

All Adults Here is written in a shifting third-person point of view. Characters whose perspectives are represented in the narration include Astrid Strick, Astrid’s three children (Nicky, Elliot, and Porter), Astrid’s granddaughter Cecelia, Wendy (Elliot’s wife), August aka Robin (a friend of Cecelia’s), and Barbara (an acquaintance of Astrid’s who dies at the beginning of the novel but appears in a flashback). The narration often stays limited to the point of view of one character for the length of a chapter and switches to a different point of view in the next chapter. Occasionally, however, it switches mid-chapter. For example, Chapter 11, “Secondhand News” (77), which covers a shopping trip to a thrift store, shifts perspective from Porter to Cecelia when the two separate and Cecelia goes to try on clothes. Other chapters include more characters and drift closer to an omniscient...