Point of View

The question of Point of View in The Madonnas of Leningrad is a complicated one.

This is because, as previously discussed, the book as a whole develops three narrative lines. Two (referred to in this analysis as "The Past" and "The Present") are written primarily from the point of view of protagonist Marina, youthful in "The Past", elderly and suffering from Alzheimer's Disease in the present. There are, however, occasions in the present timeline in which the narrative shifts to the point of view of either Helen (Marina's daughter) or, less often, of Dmitri (Marina's husband). The third narrative line, again as previously discussed, is that of a tour guide taking the viewer/reader on a tour of the Hermitage Museum (it's very possible that the guide is, in fact, Marina, but the actual identity of the guide is never explicitly defined). All three narrative lines...