Point of View
In the first sentence of Saving Fish from Drowning, you are informed that the person speaking to you is dead. Bibi, the first person narrator, was an art gallery owner who loved to travel just as much as she loved art, which was a lot. Bibi is recounting her memory of going on a trip with her friends. However, she is dead when she goes on this trip. She and her friends, who are alive, were planning to go to China and Burma for Christmas. Bibi, being the most experienced traveler of the bunch decided to plan the trip. She arranged the sights, the guides, and the hotels. She even wrote up a packet containing information her friends might find useful when going through these countries. She was very thorough. On top of the itinerary, and the packet, she arranged the passage for her group into to Burma (now Myanmar) by land. Their trip will be the first time this border has been legally crossed in years. They were all excited to go together. Unfortunately, Bibi met her untimely death just before the departure. She had been working and someone broke in. The next morning she was found with hung in her window with stab wounds. But she woke up. She was no longer in the same state or dimension as everyone around her, but she was there. She was now able to interact with people’s minds. She knew everything about anyone she desired to know about. A funeral was planned for her. At this event, her friends decided to still go on the trip because of all the hard work Bibi had put into it. Bibi (the ghost, or something like that) decided to follow along. She became the all-knowing storyteller of their trip.
This point of view is a rare one. Bibi’s personal opinions are easily conveyed as well as the thoughts of her friends around her.She is an omniscient narrator because she can express the thoughts of others, as well as her own. This gives an advantage to the author because she was easily able to lead the reader’s thought process through the medium of Bibi’s interjections. It also leads the reader to the question “What is really after death?” This is the question generations have been asking, for well, generations. Currently, Bibi is in a state of limbo, as referred to by the book. She is present in the world, a ghost of sorts because she is roaming and viewing what she pleases, without those present aware. She also has not run into any others that are in this state with her, leading to the notion that the after-death journey is an individual one. Bibi is constantly pausing the story of the trip to care out thoughts on the state in which she is currently. This same thing happens to the reader. As the reader, one is constantly invested in the story ahead; wondering what will happen next or what won’t. However, in the back of their minds, everyone is wondering; what’s going to happen with Bibi? Will the book end because the trip does or because there is no longer a spirit to tell it?
