Point of View

Ali Smith tells her novel “How to Be Both” from two points of view. The novel is divided in half, with one section of the novel being told by Ali Smith as a third-person, omniscient narrator for nearly the entire section, and in her own voice at the tail end of the first section. The other section of the novel is told in the first-person limited-omniscient reflective narrative from the point of view of Francesco Del Cossa. Francesco’s section of the novel is told in such a manner as Francesco is dead, but has been returned to Earth to shadow George. In many ways, he becomes an observer to George the way the reader is an observer to Smith’s narration in George’s section of the novel, while the reader experiences firsthand through the first-person narrative mode the life and memories of Francesco...