Point of View

The novel employs a third-person omniscient narrator, a choice that allows for a broad and detached perspective on the lives of its protagonists, Anna and Tom. This omniscience is most explicitly demonstrated in the final chapter, which is told in the future tense and lays out with certainty what will happen next in Anna and Tom’s lives—how they will renovate the hotel, how they will design the rooms, what decisions they will make. There is no suggestion of speculation or possibility; the narrator knows what is coming and states it with authority. Yet despite this all-knowing stance, the narration offers almost no access to the characters’ inner lives.

Instead of delving into Anna and Tom’s thoughts or emotions, the narrative voice focuses on describing their environment: the objects they own, the places they live, the activities they undertake, and the image they...