Point of View

The novel is narrated by an apparently-omniscient narrator who refers to himself as "The Holy Goat" and makes intertextual references to various interviews conducted with members of the novel's cast that situate the act of writing within the world of the novel itself. This omniscience is significant in that it provides the narrator with an excuse to access the inner worlds of multiple characters, an environment that allows the novel to celebrate its themes of collectivism and collaboration between its disparate characters. However, the eventual reveal that this narrator is in fact Grady Haynes operating from a later place in life allows Duncan to make a number of interruptions in his narrative that showcase Grady's emotional relationship with the novel's subjects, a kind of narrative imperfection that gives Duncan, as author, room to eschew his own objectivism.

Given that the novel is focused on the...