Point of View

The author writes Lost Children Archive from both the mother and her son's first person points of view. While the first half of the novel is told from the mother's perspective, the boy's portions of the narrative in the latter half hold equal authoritative weight. By allowing these two characters to share in the telling of the story, the author is able to illustrate the multidimensionality of documentation and of historical renderings.

Because the mother narrates the first section of the novel, the reader enters the narrative with her artistic, political, and psychological concerns in mind. This interrogative angle establishes the first half of the novel as both an exploration and a documentary. The mother's first person vantage, allows the reader access to each of her most intimate concerns. The narrative frequently lapses into the woman's memories, the early days of her second marriage, her...