Point of View

Another Brooklyn is told in first-person point of view, from the perspective of August as an adult. August shifts between her memories of her childhood, many of which come to the reader only as imagistic impressions, and her present-day reality as a cultural anthropologist who studies the death and funeral rituals of cultures all over the world. As a child, August is in denial about her mother's death, but the adult August, who narrates the novel, is not. The reader can see that the adult August understands her childhood denial through the way she layers hints about the urn of ashes that the child August asks about.

Language and Meaning

The language of Another Brooklyn is lyrical and often verges on the poetic. From the very first sentence, "For a long time my mother wasn't dead yet," (1) the reader is aware that the narrative will...