Point of View

The novel is presented in first person from the limited view of Linda, whose real name is Madeline. She is a teenaged student as the novel opens, but she writes from the vantage point of some two decades in the future, when she is a 37-year-old adult, still struggling to understand the events of that year in her life. She writes little of her current situation at age 37, meaning the novel is written in past tense.

The limited perspective means the reader knows only what Linda knows. However, the fact that she writes from a future has an impact on that perspective. By the time she is writing, she knows the details of those months of her life. She knows that Paul died, that Lily became pregnant and left town, and that Mr. Grierson was arrested for child pornography. She does not keep any of...