Point of View

The novel is narrated in the first person and the past tense. The novel is consistently told from the point of view of the protagonist/narrator. As a result, the themes, tone, and narrative all revolve around the protagonist’s values, personal tribulations, and experiences. Specifically, as a homosexual writer temporarily living in a generally homophobic country, the narrator focuses his attention on ideas of love, sexuality, art, and sociopolitics. The tone of the narrative follows the ups and downs of the narrator’s own experiences. For example, he feels at fulfilled by his relationship with R., but he then becomes sad and despondent after R. ends the relationship.

Although the narrative is consistently told from the narrator’s point of view, the novel is still able to use dialogue and exposition in order to juxtapose the narrator’s point of view with the perspectives...