Point of View

The novel is written in the third person and the past tense. The narration is consistently filtered through Don’s perspective. This narrative mode allows the reader to attain both an intimacy and a distance regarding Don and his interior life. A central focus of the narrative is the exploration of Don’s various addiction-fueled delusions. Thus, the balance between objectivity and subjectivity allows the reader to understand Don’s thoughts and feelings while also being able to view that interiority more objectively for the delusions that they are. For example, towards the end of the book, Don’s alcoholism pushes him away from sobriety by convincing him that alcohol is actually necessary to ease into sobriety: “…with the aid of the drink as medicine, gradually work back to [sobriety]” (239).

Additionally, this access to Don’s interiority allows the reader both a subjective and objective...