Point of View

The use of point of view is the most distinctive and significant literary technique employed by the author in this novel. Ostensibly, the novel is told from the point of view of three central characters: Will, Phoebe, and John Leal. However, framing all of these perspectives is the overarching perspective of Will. Will is explicitly the author of the chapters told from Phoebe’s perspective and each of these chapters begins with a reminder that someone else is framing Phoebe’s words in the narrative: “I’ll add what details I can” (5); “In Phoebe’s next confession to Jejah, she might have said” (23); “I collided into a truck, she’d have said” (45). It is eventually revealed that Will is getting the information from these chapters from a journal Phoebe kept to prepare for her Jejah confessions. For this reason, Phoebe’s perspective disappears from the...