Point of View

Sabbath's Theater is written as if it were in the third person with an omniscient narrator. However, the third person narrator is actually Sabbath in disguise. The book reads as if Sabbath were speaking of himself in the third person, which makes sense when one considers that Sabbath's entire life has been a show. As the author of the play, he narrates it himself and plays the lead role. The story is not a true autobiography and would lose some of its power if Sabbath narrated in the first person. Sabbath is not merely recounting the story of his life. His life is a story, a show he has created to entertain the audience.

Sabbath's point of view as a narrator is highly unreliable. The other characters in the book, seen through the rheumy lens of Sabbath's depravity, are portrayed as living jokes. Their deepest hopes...