Point of View

The Point of View in this novel is squarely centered on Lillian Boxfish. Every experience described is hers, and the reader never moves outside of Lillian’s perspective on the world. In this way, the reader only understands Lillian based on the way she views herself. Her commentary on the way she is perceived is only her own; the reader has no way of knowing how Lillian is viewed when she moves through the world.

Lillian’s commentary is always based on what she knows as an 84-year-old woman. Although Lillian narrates the momentous events in her life from her childhood to her later years, Lillian always uses the knowledge she has gained after the fact to comment on her situation. For example, when Lillian describes her first months with Max, she comments that “years hence, at the bitter end” that he was not “addicted...