Points of View

The story is told by the narrator, whom readers may assume is the author but is unnamed. He uses the first person to describe events in which he participates, especially conversations. He uses the third person to describe events that are told to him by other people. There is nothing in this story that is not observed by or told to the narrator. The narrator does not know what characters think about things unless they have told him directly or told someone else who has told him. The reader participates fully in the narrator's experience as he unfolds the story. The movement of the story in place and time is at the narrator's discretion.

The reader can easily guess at the source of the events recounted in the third person. Utz's history leading up to 1967 is provided via the narrator's friend, the historian of Iron Curtain...