Point of View

The novel is told in first-person from Ginny’s perspective. The readers follow Ginny’s trails of thought as she wanders into her own troubled past. She wants to figure out why she has become a placid, non-confrontational woman, so her thoughts revolve around her struggles to contain her own opinions.

As Ginny grows, though, she becomes more open with her ideas. Once she remembers certain events from her past and re-interprets others, she realizes she has been given a difficult legacy, an inheritance she did not want. She becomes bitter, but she tempers her anger with prudence and gentility.

Because of the novel’s first-person point of view, which spans over a few weeks’ time, most of the novel is Ginny’s personal thoughts and feelings. There is very little action, and most of the action is told through the commentary rather than direct...