Point of View

The story is told from the first person, present tense point of view – that is, from the perspective of its central character and protagonist, Joy Jones. Both aspects of this point of view draw the reader closely into Joy’s story, in that they experience what she experiences as she experiences it in terms of both what happens and how she feels and acts in response.

To consider this aspect of the book from another possible perspective: there is a strong sense that this stylistic choice reflects and manifests a process of constructing and affirming memory – in other words, that Joy is telling this story, reliving this story, in the way she is in order to ensure that she remembers it correctly. As she herself suggests in the narrative, the sickness to which she seems to be immune destroys memory, and she has developed a...