Voice in Everything in This Country Must

I was interested in the voice McCann writes in in his story Everything in This Country Must. I thought it sounded eloquent yet strangely childish. It added a surreal quality that draws the reader into the story more so than if it had been written in a straight, matter of fact tone. One thing I noticed in particular about the writing was the use of long, run on sentences with lots of conjunctions. I thought this gave a feeling of immensity, as if the story is too big to fit into neat, organized sentences. Though the straight facts of the story are not all that impressive, the emotional toll that it takes on the narrator and her father is significant. We see this not just in the description of the characters but through the language and the writing. Not everything the narrator writes makes perfect sense, and that combined with the long sentences reminds one of the ramblings of a disillusioned, shellshocked soldier.
This brought up the question to me of who is telling this story. Is it from the perspective of the girl as a fifteen year old, or an adult looking back on her past. I couldn't come to any conclusion, but I was leaning towards the former. The voice seems traumatized, and naive yet perceptive. It seems to be written in a burst of inspiration. Yet it is hard to imagine a fifteen year old poetic enough to write something like, "oh what a small sky for so much rain."

http://www.colummccann.com/interviews/everything.htm

This is an interview with Colum McCann about the writing of Everything in This Country Must. I found it interesting how he describes his writing process and how it relates to the particular voice.