Point of View

The novel is written from the first person point of view of an unnamed narrator. Throughout the majority of the novel, this first person point of view appears more reminiscent of a third person point of view narration. Indeed, the narrator’s first person pronouns do not appear on the page until the latter half of Part III. Throughout the preceding sections, the narrator’s voice is colloquial, familiar, and humorous, tonal registers which allow the reader to imagine an amorphous, yet charismatic identity behind the narrative voice. Then, near the end of Part III, “How to Become a Chilean Poet,” the narrator finally refers to themself more explicitly, saying: “And then Pru thinks about staying in Chile, but her life is not a splendid bad movie, so she gets on the plane, and I would really like to get on it with her . . . but...