Point of View

For the most part, this novel is told using a third-person omniscient narrator. As an omniscient narrator, the narrative focus switches between different characters throughout the novel, presenting the reader with the intimate thoughts and feelings of different characters in different chapters. For example, during Anita’s meeting with Christian Voubert, the novel presents Voubert’s thoughts (as he privately evaluates Anita), verbatim, but without using quotation marks or other punctuation: “Has lived in Paris: arrogant. Native of an island: lazy” (42). This investigation of Voubert’s private thoughts is notable because Voubert is by no means a major character, appearing in only one other scene across the novel outside of this one. As the narrative perspective shifts from character to character, the perspective will gradually come closer and closer to a certain character’s perspective before, briefly, slipping entirely into the first person. One example...