Point of View

The novel is written from both the third and first person points of view. The narrative body is primarily dictated by the third person limited point of view. In these portions of the novel, the third person narrator has sole access to Bennedith’s consciousness. Therefore, the way in which the narrator renders the world is dictated by Bennedith’s experiences, her psyche, and thus her thoughts and feelings. In order to better understand this formal dynamic, the reader might refer to the opening pages of “Mercuro.” The narrator begins the section with Bennedith’s arrival in Madrid and thus descriptions of the city from Bennedith’s point of view: “The place is like a wild animal that has been tamed, or an ember still smoldering. You have to be on your guard, and if you sleep, you should do so with one eye permanently...