Point of View

The point of view is one of the most crucial and intriguing elements in The Counterlife. It changes in each of the five parts, and it often changes with absolutely no warning within those parts. Many times the reader must read on for paragraphs or pages to be certain of the narrator's identity, and even then often the best one can determine is that it is a third person narrator focused on the perspective of a certain character.

Part 1 begins with what seems like a third person narrator, and then after a section break a first person narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, reveals that the preceding part had been his failed attempt at a eulogy for his brother. After continuing on for some time with a first person narrator, the novel shifts at the beginning of Part 4 to a third person narrator focused on the perspective of Henry...