Point of View

Everybody’s Fool is in the third-person omniscient narrative mode. This mode allows Russo to tell the novel in great depth, as the third-person relates the actions, thoughts, feelings, and motives of the characters of the novel as the novel moves from character to character. Each chapter deals primarily with one or two particular characters. The actions and thoughts of these characters are known only to the characters themselves, the reader, and the narrator. As such, the reader knows about things going on in the novel at all times, including when other characters do not. The third-person narrator also acts as a common unifying voice and thread between many different characters and subplots, drawing them altogether in a wider narrative as lives and events intersect. For example, Sully, dying of a heart condition, comes to help the chief of police dig up the grave of...