Slow River was very much like a case study of a person, a comprehensive analysis of that person’s life and what happened to them that made them into the person that they currently are. Nicola Griffith, in my opinion, was able to make Lore a very interesting and complex character. She was able to accomplish this in part because of the differing narrative perspectives in the novel.

One of the most prominent aspects of Slow River is the constant switching of perspective, from third person when describing the past to first person when describing the present. At first, I was kind of annoyed at this but I gradually came to appreciate it. This switching of perspectives has a powerful impact on the story. It manages to reflect the internal conflict that Lore is experiencing – she feels like she is completely detached from her past, as if her past self is a completely different entity. Numerous times throughout the novel, she questions who her true self while rejecting her past. In one memorable passage, she is sitting on a rooftop, reminiscing about major events throughout her lifetime, when she suddenly steps onto a ledge and contemplates what implications suicide might bring:

When I was finishing the fourth can, I realized I was standing at the edge of the roof. My toes poked over the gutter. One more step. No more Sal Bird, aged twenty-five. No more fear about being found out; no more worries about dangerous people coming looking for me or Spanner; no more responsibility, feeling like I was the thin human wall between an unsuspecting city and an accident waiting to happen. It could all just stop. Here. Now. After all, Frances Lorien van de Oest had died a long time ago. (Griffith, 100)

Here, Lore reveals the anguish that her past brings her, and how it has disgusted her to the point where she completely rejects her old self. The retelling of Lore’s past in third person reinforces this notion. Instead of Lore personally taking the reader through her past, we get a more objective, detached narrator which more accurately reveals the chasm between Lore’s past and present. The differing perspectives give the novel two dramatically different tones and adds a great deal of complexity. When the novel switches to Lore’s past and consequently the third person perspective, it seems like the reader is made to feel powerless, because we are observing from a distance and do not receive any of Lore’s thoughts. In contrast, when the story changes to the present and we are brought back to the first person, Lore seems like an extremely competent and intelligent being and it feels like she is much more in control of her situation. Before, Lore was powerless and entirely subject to the whims of her environment; now, Lore is the smartest person at her work place and is constantly fighting against her environment rather than constantly giving in to it. Ultimately, I think this switching of perspectives is one of the more poignant aspects of the novel.