Point of View

Every story in this collection is told from the first-person point of view, although several of the speakers differ in some ways in terms of their characters. While they are all men, they all come from different walks of life. For example, Bill Whitman, the narrator from "The Largesse of the Sea Maiden," is an upper middle class family man who used to work in New York as an ad writer. He now lives with his wife in San Diego, California. He works as a brochure writer.

Cass, the narrator from "The Starlight in Idaho," is a much younger man who comes from an unstable family. He is a recovering alcoholic, battling the throes of his addiction. Thus, the first person point of view, while consistent, is utilized in a variety of different ways by offering a fairly wide range of voices in order to...