Point of View

This novel is written entirely from a first-person point of view. The narrator and protagonist, a young man of about 31, is eventually revealed to have the same name as the author, Charles Yu. One effect of this revelation is to subtly shift the viewpoint. The viewpoint subsequently becomes at least partially the view of the author, who has inserted himself into the story by giving his name to the protagonist. This metafictional technique does not alter the role of the narrator as the character through whom all events and other characters are viewed, but it does raise the question of how many of the perceptions of the narrator named Charles are shared by the author, Charles Yu. Of course, the easy answer to this question is that all such perceptions are shared, because the narrator is a fabrication from the mind of the author. Yet that...