Books narrated in the first person

Eliot Rosewater

Since Christmas Ive read few books written in the first person. Ive become very interested in first person narratives and the possibilities that writing in the first person can offer.

For example in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest the narrator is an insane man. His narration cannot be taken to be the absolute truth at all. The story is depicted in a totally different manner as a result.

Any first person books you thought were narrated interestingly?


Theres a few other examples I can think of where the author did something interesting with the first person:

• To Kill A Mockingbird: the story is told through the eyes of a young innocent girl to expose the objective stupidity of racism. It also influences the telling; her father is portrayed as a hero.
• Catcher in the Rye and A Clockwork Orange: in these books the narrator is the most important character and how they live their lives is one of the central themes.
• Earthly Powers: the narrator is an author and is self consciously aware of the fact he is telling the story. So he uses writing techniques such as "an arresting opening" and then comments on his own techniques.

randomguy

That could be a long list, but I'll throw out a few suggestions since Earthly Powers is one of my favourite books (I was pushing it to others on here a few months ago too).

Lots of Peter Carey books have unreliable narrators, Illywhacker being the classic, but it might be a bit much for some tastes. Even The True History of the Kelly Gang kept up his post-modern obsession.
The Untouchable and Book of Evidence by John Banville are both along similar lines, where the text plays a self-serving role for the narrator, and the fact of narration is part of the story.
If you are into that post-moderny phase of unreliable narrators, John Fowles is a terror. A Maggot mixes it up, but "Daniel Martin" is the worst, in a good way, for that kind of stuff, and is very similar to Earthly Power. It was fashionable in the 80s, seemingly.
Stephen Fry's The Liar, although 3rd person narration, messes around a bit like that too.

Recommended, for a different reason: the Richard Ford - Frank Bascombe trilogy, starting with The Sportswriter, really gets into the head of a first person narrator. It's scary how well he captures a voice. Claire Keegan's short stories are similar, where you have a hard time reminding yourself that this is a narrator, not the author, so strong and consistent is the narrator's voice. EL Doctorow's Billy Bathgate is another along those lines.

randomguy

Forgot to mention Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman, and Atonement by Ian McEwan, for different reasons.

presotrader

interesting topic. most of Robert Heinlein's books share this characteristic as well. very powerful, it makes the insights of the main character more palatable then having them inserted as long descriptions.

Denerick

I like first person narratives when they are done well, such as 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas also...

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

The Sparrow

Just started Papillion and it is narrated in the first person. Seems great too.

That_Guy

I'm reading The Street Lawyer by John Grisham at the moment. It's written in the first person.

It's written well and everything is described very very well.

tHE vAGGABOND

just started Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry, its 'sorta' narrated in 1st person..

Stella777

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.

It's one of my favorites and happens to be narrated by a a detective with Tourette's Syndrome.

Many of the character's verbal tics come out in his narration. It's about a taxi service, which is a front for a detective agency, which itself is a front for some low level mafia activities. It's also a tale of "honour among thieves," and a very beautiful book.

The title refers to the fact that all of the employees at the dective agency grew up together in the same orphanage. Eventually they were taken under the wing of a mob guy.

mackthefinger

randomguy wrote: »

Recommended, for a different reason: the Richard Ford - Frank Bascombe trilogy, starting with The Sportswriter, really gets into the head of a first person narrator. It's scary how well he captures a voice.

This was the first one that came to my mind. The first person
is especially compelling when the narrator is disturbed, such
as Francie in 'the Butcher Boy'. Another famous one is probably
'Jane Eyre' which I studied at college (though not a favourite) and it
probably highlights one of the advantages of first person narration, in that
the action and impressions are filtered, and this limited viewpoint can
result in the reader being misled, just like the narrator. It can add to the story.

FruitLover

Any of Irvine Welsh's novels. Usually it's not just a case of narration in the first person, but narration in several first people! The writing style (and sometimes accent) changes from character to character, revealing certain character attributes.

pwd

The Sparrow wrote: »

Just started Papillion and it is narrated in the first person. Seems great too.

it's an autobiography, so it would have to be really
[although some people say he made most of it up anyways]

Sarah Woodruff

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

Since Christmas Ive read few books written in the first person. Ive become very interested in first person narratives and the possibilities that writing in the first person can offer.

For example in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest the narrator is an insane man. His narration cannot be taken to be the absolute truth at all. The story is depicted in a totally different manner as a result.

Any first person books you thought were narrated interestingly?



Theres a few other examples I can think of where the author did something interesting with the first person:

• To Kill A Mockingbird: the story is told through the eyes of a young innocent girl to expose the objective stupidity of racism. It also influences the telling; her father is portrayed as a hero.
• Catcher in the Rye and A Clockwork Orange: in these books the narrator is the most important character and how they live their lives is one of the central themes.
• Earthly Powers: the narrator is an author and is self consciously aware of the fact he is telling the story. So he uses writing techniques such as "an arresting opening" and then comments on his own techniques.

Surely that is true of all FICTION. Of course, there are some cases where it's more obvious than others - but in general I would say, never take the narrator's line as "true". What's truth anyway.

As Beckett writes at the end of one of the trilogy novels (Molloy or Malone Dies, can't remember which) "....I went up to my room and wrote, It is midnight; the rain is beating against the window. It was not midnight. It was not raining."

But maybe it was midnight!! Maybe it was raining!!

Sarah Woodruff

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

just started Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry, its 'sorta' narrated in 1st person..

Is that the one where he finds out she is his mother near the end?

mod note: please use spoiler tags [noparse]

[/noparse] if you're going to give away half the conclusion!

scriba

Aarrgh! *scriba scratches Secret Scripture off his to-read list*

randomguy

Sarah Woodruff wrote: »

Surely that is true of all FICTION. Of course, there are some cases where it's more obvious than others - but in general I would say, never take the narrator's line as "true". What's truth anyway.

As Beckett writes at the end of one of the trilogy novels (Molloy or Malone Dies, can't remember which) "....I went up to my room and wrote, It is midnight; the rain is beating against the window. It was not midnight. It was not raining."

But maybe it was midnight!! Maybe it was raining!!

I think you are missing the OP's point. Obviously all fiction is untrue. And you can go off on one about the existence of objective truth if that's what interests you, but that's not the point. He was specifially talking about unreliable first-person narrators within the narrative - ie where there is a first person narrative who tells a story, which even within the terms of the same narrative is untrue, or half-true, or whatever.
In the examples I gave:
Illywhacker -

Towards the end you disover the narrator had stole the diary of one of the other characters, and had been cutting and pasting from it.

In Ned kelly, you are aware of the fact that this is meant to be a found manuscript, where the narrator is justifying his life.
The Untouchable - all the way through you are conscious of the fact that the narrator is trying to re-write history to make himself look good. Ditto Book of Evidence, to a certain degree.

In the example of the OP, Earthly Powers, the narrator is a self-aware writer, so you get his story, but also his commentary on the fact of narration, and even the manner of narration.

I like the Beckett quote though all the same.
PS - watch it with the spoilers.

Sarah Woodruff

randomguy wrote: »

I think you are missing the OP's point. Obviously all fiction is untrue. And you can go off on one about the existence of objective truth if that's what interests you, but that's not the point. He was specifially talking about unreliable first-person narrators within the narrative - ie where there is a first person narrative who tells a story, which even within the terms of the same narrative is untrue, or half-true, or whatever.
In the examples I gave:
Illywhacker -

Towards the end you disover the narrator had stole the diary of one of the other characters, and had been cutting and pasting from it.

In Ned kelly, you are aware of the fact that this is meant to be a found manuscript, where the narrator is justifying his life.
The Untouchable - all the way through you are conscious of the fact that the narrator is trying to re-write history to make himself look good. Ditto Book of Evidence, to a certain degree.

In the example of the OP, Earthly Powers, the narrator is a self-aware writer, so you get his story, but also his commentary on the fact of narration, and even the manner of narration.

I like the Beckett quote though all the same.
PS - watch it with the spoilers.

Maybe I was missing the point, maybe I wasn't. Maybe I was being provocative. I still believe that those who claim to have no interest in bending the truth are usually those we should fear most. Or at least be most wary of. Sure, 'tis easy enough to spot the mad bastards. I really like The Butcher Boy, btw. Great first line.

I think Ishiguro's first person narrators are interesting. When We Were Orphans, for example.

How d'ye do that grey spoiler bar thingy?? I'm new here, as you can see.

Eliot Rosewater

Well I was on about first person narratives that intentionally did something interesting with the concept. Such as self-awareness.

This doesn't apply to all fiction. Most times it would seem the first person narrative is used just because its easier for the author to portray their character.


RE Spoiler tag: when your posting theres a horizontal list of text editing options above the box you type into. On the far right just above the smilies is the "spoiler tag". Its forum rules to include it if your giving plot details, but we'l let you off because your new


@randomguy: glad to find someone else who has read Earthly Powers Im very surprised its not included in those top 100 lists, especially when Clockwork Orange is included. Perhaps because of its length?

randomguy

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

@randomguy: glad to find someone else who has read Earthly Powers Im very surprised its not included in those top 100 lists, especially when Clockwork Orange is included. Perhaps because of its length?

Yeah, I've always ranked it above Clockwork Orange. Maybe Clockwork Orange ends up pigeon-holing him.
Makes it on to the top 1000, but then so does End of the World News, which is really only a curiousity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction
Glad to see Illywhacker by Peter Carey on here too. (But there is already a discussion on this list somewhere on here, so not going to start commenting here).

There's a group of books that if someone likes one they'll normally like them all:
Earthly Powers
Of Human Bondage - WS Maugham
The Deptford Trilogy (especially Fifth Business) - Robertson Davies
The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler
My Secret History - Paul Theroux
Maybe I just think that though because they are all books that I liked as a youngfella.

Amazotheamazing

The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway is narrated in the first person, decent enough book too.

Lambsbread

You should try Cold Caller by Jason Starr.

Once I started reading it i couldn't put it down!! I felt I was really identifying with the character also.

cashback

Read Post Office by Charles Bukowski the other day. First person narrative and a good humorous one too. Want to read some more of his stuff now.

kiki3387

The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner is one I always thought was narrated very interestingly, can be difficult to read in parts but a very interesting way of approaching narration.
And I suppose Ulysses is an obvious one, but I tend to like the stream of consciousness thing!

Nervous Wreck

Anything by Bret Easton Ellis but particularly American Psycho.

By the time you get to the end of the book, you realise that most of the events likely took place within the narrator's twisted, narcissistic head.

Excellent read.

Hrududu

One I read recently was When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was told in the first person but the narrator was unreliable. You were never fully certain that what was described was actually what was going on.

danslevent

The most interesting first person novel I have come across recently has to be,'The story of Edgar Sawtelle' by David Wroblewski. The boy in it is deaf, it makes for an interesting view point. The story is based on the play 'Hamlet' and is really well written

KazDub

"The handmaid's tale" is an amazing piece of fiction written in the first person.

dcmu

Nervous Wreck wrote: »

Anything by Bret Easton Ellis but particularly American Psycho.

By the time you get to the end of the book, you realise that most of the events likely took place within the narrator's twisted, narcissistic head.

Excellent read.

What was truly brilliant about that book was the fact there was an ambiguity to that.

The movie drew the conclusion that it was imagined, but the novel didn't.

I must read that book again, because it was a truly extraordinary read.

High fidelity (Nick hornby) was a book that stood out for me. More because it was a truly intelligent, and funny read, more than the fact that it did anything unique. And I read it at a time in my life when books began to really mean something to me.

The Lovely Bones was interesting too, because although written in the first person, it was narrated in a way that third person books are

(due to the protagonist being able to oversee so much).

Eliot Rosewater

I'm reading a very interesting book at the moment - The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. The first section is narrated by a mentally deficient 33 year old. The narrator doesn't see things in terms of time, but rather in terms of association, especially place. For example he will describe a scene that finishes with him passing through a hole in a fence, then jump back to another time in the past where he went through the same hole. So the time jumps sporadically, but the physical location remains somewhat continuous.


It sounds confusing, and it kind of is. I got to page 10 before giving up; I'm going to start it at different time, when I am properly recovered from my heavy Saturday night.

ArmaniJeanss

A couple of Agatha Christies books used this 'dodgy narrator' device, whereby the narrator appears to be an interested observer of Hercule Poirots investigation but is unveiled as the murderer near the end, and in the final page the story of the narration becomes a Death Row pre-execution explanation. Because she wrote about 25 books in first person narrative it was quite an effective device the couple of times that the narrator was the murderer.
PM if you want the name of the books (obviously you will know the murderer from the first page though, which sort of defeats the purpose of a Christie book).

Also Len Deighton wrote a Cold War spy series (Game, Set, Match, Hook, Line, Sinker) with the first 5 books as first person narration and the 6th book going back over much of the same ground as the first 5 books but as 3rd party narration, and revealing just how manipulated and gullible (and at times deceitful) that the original narrator had been.