Perspective

The stories in the book were written as a series of first-person essays. The reader should keep in mind that these originally ran as newspaper and magazine articles, making the interjection of the author into the stories somewhat unusual compared to today's typical newspaper and magazine articles. However, the use of first-person observations was acceptable for the time frame. The use of first-person means there were several things possible and the reader needs to keep these in mind. For example, the author may have skewed details and information based on his own memories. While he was probably taking notes during or immediately after the events, the reader should keep in mind that the people and events were presented from the author's perspective. This limited perspective also meant that the author might not have known everything about his subjects. For example, he goes into an abandoned floor of a...