Point of View

Jessie Ann Foley tells her novel “The Carnival at Bray” from the third-person limited-omniscient point of view, with the narrator following closely the thoughts, words, and actions of main character and principal protagonist, Maggie. This allows Foley the ability not only to tell Maggie’s story, but also allows her to fill in contextual information, as well as other important information for the reader to gain a better sense of the world in 1993, in addition to the events of the book itself. For example, in Part II, Chapter 9, the narration begins with a description of the bird sanctuary at Montrose Harbor in North Chicago, which in turn leads to Kevin’s visiting the place before committing suicide. Here, Foley is able to add contextual information to better explain the events of the novel by describing not only the bid sanctuary itself, but its importance in...