What We All Long For

The novel itself is structured as a shifting set of perspectives—most of the chapters are narrated by an unnamed, omniscient narrator, but individual chapters take on varying perspectives—Tuyen in one; Carla in another; etc. The narrative even sometimes shift into different perspectives in the same chapter, such as late in the novel when Oku’s wanderings through Alexandra Park shift into what appears to be a recounting of Jackie’s parents lives that could not have been known by him (for, we are told in the beginning of the book, the group almost by a rule does not discuss family matters to any great extent). Then there are the Quy chapters, which not only shift character perspective but actual narrative point of view, moving from an omniscient, non-participant narrator into Quy as participant narrator. The effect is to make the reader question what is reliable and accurate in the novel, even suggesting a possible reading that the entire novel is the manifestation of one person imagining a whole life for three random young people he or she sees on the morning train.