Perspective

Will Eisner tells his novel "Contract with God Trilogy" from the perspective of a third-person omniscient narrator, who might well have been a resident of Dropsie Avenue himself/herself. This third-person omniscience allows the reader to traverse the dirty streets, moving from one event to the next, and from one person to the next, without being bogged down with different and switched perspectives. This is especially important given the sheer sweep of characters, their classes, their beliefs, and their identities.

Tone

The tone of Will Eisner's "Contract with God Trilogy" is one of tragic, poetic reminiscence. Because much of the work is autobiographical, Eisner tells the story in a way that readers can relate to, as though one were talking to a grandparent about the past. Eisner recounts with tender gentleness stories such as "Contract with God" and "On the Top Floor, Back, Lived God", and uses no...