Point of View

Monster in the Middle is written from a range of first and third person points of view. Because the novel is so deeply interested in exploring the intersection between ancestral history and individual identity, this convergence of narrative vantages is essential to understanding the narrative themes. The opening chapter, "Love Letter," is written from the first person plural points of view of Stela and Fly's parents, and introduces these thematic and formal notions. One way to understand love and emotional baggage, the narrators of "Love Letter" say, is as follows: "when you meet your love, you are meeting all the people who ever loved them or who were supposed to love them but didn't love them enough" (1). Then, in all of the chapters that follow, the author presents the voices of all of the people who came before, and thus have shaped Fly and Stela's...