Point of View

Raised in Captivity is a collection of 34 very short stories, each with their own distinct narrative point of view. Some are told in first person, some in third, and often the first person narrators are presenting a story that is obviously lacking in context, making it a challenge for the reader to connect the dots of what is not being said to make sense of the piece as a whole. This is particularly the case with “Experience Music Project,” in which a first person narrator is giving an account of several incidents that occurred at his local bodega involving the three brothers that work there and the music they choose to play on their stereo. At the end of the story the reader is told that one of the brothers beat the other to death with the stereo in question, and it seems as though...