What is the narrator point of view in the novel, Winter Garden?

This novel is told by three different narrators. The bulk of the novel is told by a third-person narrator. The focus of this third-person narration is on Meredith and Nina as they deal with their father’s sickness and death. This third-person narration also details the way each of the girls deals with getting to know their mother. Because there are two sisters, it would be difficult to present the main portion of the story from any other point of view. Using a dual first-person point of view would make the reader emotionally attached to the sisters and detract from Anya’s story. The third-person point of view allows the reader to understand Meredith and Nina’s relationship with their mother, but keeps the reader at an emotional distance.

The fairy tale, the story-within-a-story, is narrated by Anya from the third person point of view. Anya tells her story first to Nina, though Meredith is secretly listening. She finishes her story in the company of the professor, his son, and her daughters. Anya begins telling her story in the third person because it allows her to distance herself from the emotions her story contains. There is a significant change in Anya’s story when Anya leaves her third-person narration and begins to tell her story in the first-person. In Chapter 22: “Vera wants to beg with her, to plead, to say that he is not back, he is only visiting, and that she needs her mother, but she— / I can’t say anything” (320). Anya’s transition to the first-person point of view as she describes the death of her mother indicates that she has stopped hiding from her pain and has decided to acknowledge that pain.

Finally, the Epilogue is narrated from the first-person point of view of Anya. This switch to the first-person point of view indicates that Anya has evolved from a woman attempting to hide from her past and the choices she made into one who has realized that she is still worthy of love. She has written her story for her daughters. This book has given her a voice, just like the first-person narration has given her a voice. The first-person narration of Anya’s reunion with Sasha and Leo in her dying moments allows the reader to emotionally connect with Anya. This final emotional connection with Anya demonstrates how completely she has transformed from the emotionally cold woman she was described to be at the beginning of the novel.