Point of View

Maggie O’Farrell tells her novel This Must Be the Place in the omniscient-limited first and omniscient third-person narrative mode, depending on the chapter and character involved. The majority of the novel is told in the third-person narrative mode by an unknown narrator, who knows about all events, including those in the future. The third-person narrator often interrupts the narrative itself to tell readers about future events, given the reader an intimate and privileged God’s-eye view of things to come. This is done for at least two reasons. First, it contextualizes the story and helps to fill in missing pieces for the reader so that the story can more easily be understood. Second, it demonstrates that people simply do not know what lies ahead in the future – and underscores the theme in the novel that no one knows what the future will bring. Daniel...