Point of View

The point of view in Storming Heaven is more complex than in many other novels because of the multiple narrators. Each narrator reports from a first-person perspective, and they have their own peculiarities in the use of language. Three of the narrators are steeped in the language of Appalachia and one narrator, a woman from Sicily, is not a native speaker of English.

C.J. Marcum, the first narrator encountered, is perhaps the oldest of the narrators and remembers the way of life in West Virginia before the arrival of the coal producers. Carrie Bishop and Rondal Lloyd are about the same age and they are products of two very different environments, one of which is rural while the other is industrial. Rosa Angelelli is a native of Sicily and her narrative, although in the first person like the other three narratives, is often difficult to...