Point of View

The book’s shifting point of view is one of its most notable stylistic elements. Much of the narrative – about four-fifths – is narrated from the first person, past tense point of view of protagonist Andrew Bankson. It’s his interpretation of events and characters that, for the most part, defines what the reader comes to understand and/or believe about the characters, the book’s situations, and its themes. That point of view is, arguably, defined by both tensions between, and insights emerging from, the difference in ages from the time he is writing ABOUT (i.e. when he was in his late twenties) and the time he is writing FROM – the narrative is never explicit on this point, but events in the last chapter suggest that there are several years (at least a decade, maybe longer – maybe MUCH longer) between the events of the...