POVs In Anderson And Larsson

Because Poul Anderson controls narrative points of view so well, I want to contrast him with another author who is equally effective but who sometimes takes a different approach.

"Neither [Blomkvist] nor Berger had ever heard of Nils Bjurman, so neither of them were aware of him being there."

-Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire (London, 2009), CHAPTER 2, p. 35.

"[Wu] slipped out of the entrance door on Lundagatan less than five minutes before Blomkvist parked outside and rang her doorbell."

-ibid., CHAPTER 20, p. 331.

"[Salander] noted the names Hans Faste and Curt Anderson, but she missed Jerker Holberg altogether as his name was not mentioned in any of the articles."

-ibid., CHAPTER 21, p. 359. 

There are other examples but they carry the same message. A passage narrated from either Blomkvist's or Berger's point of view (pov) could not have told us that they were not aware of Bjurman. It could only have told us what they did notice. Neither Wu nor Blomkvist knows that they missed each other by less than five minutes. The omniscient narrator informs us of this directly, unmediated by either of these characters' povs. That Salander noted Faste's and Anderson's names can be narrated from her pov but that she missed Holberg cannot. Again, the omniscient narrator must inform us of this directly. I find this interesting which is why I comment on it.