Point of View

With the exception of half of the journal entries in "Children of the Sea" and the third-person narrative of "A Wall of Fire Rising," stories in the volume are written in the first-person with a female narrator. Half the "Children of the Sea" journal entries are written in a man's voice, the other half a woman's voice. This choice allows the author to focus on the rich inner lives of the characters, including dreams and the spirit world. One example is "Caroline's Wedding," in which narrator Grace spends significant time speaking of dreams she has nightly about her dead father. Another example is "Between the Pool and the Gardenias," in which the narrator talks about her dead mother's spirit visiting her, or her essence being reflected in random people's words or faces.

As a result, the point of view choice lends a very strong sense of...