Point of View

The story collection employs a variety of perspectives. However, one thing that remains consistent between almost every story is that there is only one point-of-view character. (The one exception is “We Live in Water,” which alternates between Oren and Michael.) Thus, each story is filtered through the perspective of only one character. In some stories, the point-of-view character is also the narrator, meaning the story is written in the first person. These stories include “Virgo,” “Helpless Little Things,” “The New Frontier,” “Don’t Eat Cat, and Wheelbarrow Kings.” In these stories, the narrators directly address the reader and offer their own thoughts and feelings on relevant matters. However, the overall narrative of each story does not always align with the narrator’s outlook. For example, in “Virgo,” the story mostly functions to ridicule and satirize the narrator’s ideas.

About half of the stories are...