I’m pausing from reading The Fountain Overflows to note that in my last post I said the story is narrated from the point of view of a child, Rose, which isn’t true at all: the story is narrated by Rose as an adult, looking back on her childhood. But the narrator only very occasionally refers to her adult self; most of the time, the story feels as though it’s told by a child. I get lost in the child’s world, and when Rose the adult speaks, I’m only momentarily brought up out of that world before I sink into it again. No wonder I wrote that it’s from a child’s perspective; the voice moves so seamlessly from child to adult and back again.
And what a voice the child-Rose has: intelligent, imaginative, knowing and grown-up, and yet sincere and childlike too.
Or is it the other way around: knowing and childlike, and yet sincere and grown-up too?
Okay, now back to the book.
Of Books and Bicycles 