What is the author's style in the novel, An Unnecessary Woman?

Aaliya narrates the entire novel as if she were speaking directly to her reader. She jokes with them, quotes literature to them and in some places in her work she even directly addresses the reader. For instance she describes her act of reading books and trying to make herself a part of that book so she can really understand the heart of the story. She turns to her reader at this point telling them: “If you read these pages and think I’m the way I am because I lived through a civil war, you can’t feel my pain. If you believe you’re not like me because one woman, and only one, Hannah, chose to be my friend, then you’re unable to empathize” (p. 100). Through this speech to the reader Aaliya hopes to be able to impress upon them the interconnectivity between all people. The whole being of a person cannot be summed up by one experience or situation.