Point of View

The majority of the novel “The Sport of Kings” is told using a third-person limited omniscient narrator. However, at different moments throughout the novel, almost every possible different narrative perspective is used, at one point or another. These different narrative perspective include: a collage of found documents, different characters narrating the story in first-person, the narration shifting to second person, and even the narration breaking the fourth wall and addressing the reader directly. The author uses these many different perspectives in order to explore the tremendous emotional depths that each of the main characters feel throughout the course of the novel.

An example of the narration shifting to the first-person includes the scene where Allmon drives Henry’s car back to the Forge farm following the 2006 Kentucky Derby, setting up the climactic scene of the novel. During the drive, Allmon considers all of the trials...