Point of View

At the beginning of the novel, in particular with the first chapter titled “Year 2079,” and then Chapter 1, it appears that the novel will be told using a conventional first-person narrator, the main character Fiona Skinner. However, as the novel progresses, it will switch back-and-forth without notice between this first-person perspective, a third-person omniscient narrator, and the very unconventional first-person omniscient narrator.

Chapter Six, which explores Renee’s perspective of her childhood through the lens of a single shift in the Emergency Room, is a good example of the sudden change in narrative perspective. At the beginning of the chapter, the narration is still from the same first-person perspective as the novel has been to this point: “This was how Renee saw it. And I was grateful to her, I am grateful to this day” (125). However, by the end of the chapter, the perspective has shifted...