Point of View

The novel is told from the first-person perspective of Grant, the patriarch of the Cannon-Chastanet family. Because Grant narrates a story in which he himself is not the main protagonist, he is considered a ‘modified’ first-person narrator. While most of his narration occurs in past-tense, the point in time in which he is telling the story, the narrative present, is left unspecified.

Grant’s access to the story’s main characters gives him authority as a third-person narrator. As the father and husband to the story’s two heroines, his relationship with both allows their thoughts and fears to appear on the page, even as they remain framed by Grant’s point-of-view. Because Grant possesses a sympathetic bias toward Gwen’s and Eleanor’s struggles, his investment in telling the story creates a sense of investment for the reader. Similarly, his narration helps create sympathy...