Point of View

My Year Abroad is written from Tiller's first person point of view. Tiller's distinct narrative voice acts as the primary source of tension and propulsion over the course of the novel's unfolding. In the early half of the narrative, Tiller establishes his disinterest in revealing the details of his personal life in the narrative present. The intimacy of his first person narration, coupled with his perpetual attempts to conceal and obscure the truth of his identity and circumstances, create propellant narrative contradiction. In Chapter 1, for example, Tiller says: "I won't say where I am in this greatish country of ours" (1). He tells the reader he is omitting the specifics of his whereabouts, and his life prior, as a means of protecting "Val and her XL little boy, Victor Jr." (1). However, he constantly breaks the fourth wall, making narrative gestures towards the reader as if he...