The View From Saturday

The View From Saturday begins and ends on the same day, the last Saturday in May and the day of the Academic Bowl final. E. L. Konigsburg’s novel is written in a non-linear narrative style, weaving backward and forward in time, fleshing out the main characters with detailed backstories told in their own voices from their individual perspectives. Some of the backstories have their own histories. For example, Nadia’s journey toward accepting difficult transitions happens the summer before school starts. As Nadia is narrating her story, she briefly takes the reader further back in time to her parents’ divorce, which underscores her journey. Every chapter is grounded by a question or observation that happens in the narrative’s present (at the Bowl final) that connects directly to an earlier memory, piecing together the backstories of each of The Souls by the time the team wins the championship.

Having each member of The Souls explain their own backstory and what being part of The Souls means to them allows Konigsberg to showcase each character’s unique personality and narrative voice. For example, when Noah describes his visit to Florida to see his grandparents and help with Izzy and Margaret’s wedding, the narration is full of facts: “Fact: being best man is not hard.