But, there are pitfalls that I think a good critic should be careful of. For instance, it's very easy to get stuck in the rules. By that I mean, focusing on what you think the writer should do. Francine Prose, author of "Reading Like a Writer," among other excellent works, says this:
"I suggested to...a student that what made her story so confusing was the multiple shifts in point of view. It's only a five-page short story, I said. Not Rashomon. "
And that afternoon I read Chekhov's '"Gusev,"' which concerns a sailor who dies at sea. The story begins in the sailor's point of view...the perspective shifts to that of the sailors burying him at sea...pilot fish who see the body fall...the shark who investigates...the eyes of God."
The previous quotes were taken from Francine Prose's "Reading Like a Writer".