Point of View

The book’s two narrative lines, or plots, unfold from two different points of view. The main plot, set in the early 2020’s and focusing on Republican Congressman Alexander Paine Wilson, is written in second-person, in which Wilson is referred to as “you.” There is a sense, in this choice and in the content of Wilson’s story, that the second-person voice is almost that of Wilson’s conscience. On the other hand, there are sections in which this same second-person narration describes events that Wilson does not know about from experience, or from having them described to him. In these moments, the second-person narration almost comes across as a kind of imagination that might in fact be Wilson’s spirit, or some other form of non-corporeal knowing that is connected to all the circumstances of his life, whether he knows about them or not...