Point of View

The novels main storyline, which concerns the events in bardo and the cemetery, are told from rapidly alternating points of view. Characters from the bardo—such as Hans Vollman, Roger Bevins, Willie Lincoln, and Reverend Thomas—appear to take turns recounting the novel’s central narrative in the past tense, as if they are looking back on it from the final stage of the afterlife. The novel marks the various points of view by labeling each discrete section with the name of the character who is recounting it. These chapters resemble a script, although the names are placed at the end of each discrete section rather than at the beginning. This rapidly alternating narrative serves to provide a fuller and more distinct sense of the events in the bardo, giving the reader a look into the bardo as a whole community rather than through one...