Point of View

Bendrix’ point of view is ironic, self-aware to the point of pain. He tells the story of his affair with full conviction of his own suffering, and also of his own misery and his shameful behavior. This self-awareness makes the book modern in style, for it includes the narrator in the tale, almost to the point of using the tale as a technique for leading himself through a rite of passage, or ritual of acceptance, as it were.

The tale also includes Parkis’ reports to Bendrix, and long sections of Sarah’s journal entries about Bendrix and her love for him and her love for God. Sarah’s viewpoint, which is shared by Father Crompton, and by Smythe, in the end, is that human love is impossible, because of innate flaws in human love. Because human love is impossible, and because people can only suffer...