Point of View

Deep River is told from a third person, semi-omniscient point of view that switches between characters as the novel unfolds. Deep River is not the story of one protagonist. Instead, it is the story of multiple people leading separate lives, who all come together at the River Ganges. It includes chapters that tell the stories of each of the main character's lives. The opening of the novel tells Isobe's story, and is told entirely from Isobe's point of view. The reader never sees Keiko's point of view. All that the reader knows of Keiko's inner life is what her husband knows, from sitting at her bedside and from reading her diary. She carries on dialogues with the ginko tree that is outside her window, but the reader is one step removed from these internal scenes. The reader knows Isobe better than anyone in the world, because...