Point of View

Interestingly, Narayan's novel moves back and forth between first and third person narration with some fluidity. Also of note is the fact that this shift occurs more than once in several of the chapters. This proves challenging for the reader in that the point of view most often shifts according to chronology. Moving from past and present and back again is, in terms of this narrative, a matter of course and the reader becomes aware of the small space between "what is" and "what was." In this way, the novel closely mirrors what happens automatically in the human mind. In the first chapter alone, the narration moves between third and first person point of view four times. The successive ten chapters also follow this pattern. While this constant change of perspective is somewhat vertiginous, it nonetheless proves to be more than effective in that the story...