Point of View

The book employs a third-person limited narration. This narration switches from character to character according to the chapter, and the reader experiences the story through that character's eyes and mind for the duration of the chapter. This narration is somewhat unusual in the degree to which it is intertwined with the characters' thoughts. In fact, it could be said to lie somewhere between first-person and third-person narration. While never using classic first-person narrative techniques (such as using “I”), sometimes the third-person narration presents the exact thoughts of the characters without singling them out as thoughts per se (“Grace thought,” etc.). Instead, the thoughts are mashed up seamlessly with the rest of the narration. This is in keeping with an overall strategy to use stream-of-consciousness to more accurately capture the nature of human thought.

All of the main characters chosen for chapters are dealing with intense...