Point of View

The novel uses the first-person perspective of Lorenzo, who addresses himself to the character of Lula, his dead mother. This use of first-person direct address creates the specter of another reader: a fictional one who will never read a word of it. Unlike a second-person point of view – a rare device by which a narrator enlists the reader as a character and brings them into the center of events – Lorenzo’s narrative voice sidelines the real reader in favor of a specific, absent reader. There is tragic irony in the fact of her non-existence, with the pointlessness of the narrator’s monologue serving to emphasize his loneliness as a character.

Lorenzo’s narrative voice is reserved but not misleading. He conveys his sentiments gradually and (for the most part) subtly, so we have to pay attention, but he gives us no reason to question his...