It would not have surprised me if this had won this year’s Man Booker Prize. My heart was supporting Richard Flanagan’s magnificent The Narrow Road To The Deep North but I had a feeling this was going to get the nod. In the end it didn’t win but it would have been a deserving winner […]
Add a Comment
new posts in all blogs
By: [email protected],
on 10/26/2014
Blog: Perpetually Adolescent (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Books, Family, siblings, book review, growing up, chimpanzee, unreliable narrator, dysfunctional family, karen joy fowler, Book Reviews - Fiction, animal liberation, we are completely beside ourselves, Add a tag
By: Jack O'Rourke,
on 2/26/2013
Blog: gael writer (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Robert Cormier, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, unreliable narrator, Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, I am the Cheese, Add a tag
The ensuing discussion on 'unreliable narrators' includes reflections on the writing strategy found in "Gone Girl," a recent NY Times best selling novel by Gillian Flynn. The novel has been variously described by the critics as a literary mystery novel; a frightening portrait of psychopathy in a failing marriage; a love story wrapped in a mystery--suspenseful, funny, and chilling, sometimes all at once. As each turn in the plot begins to dawn on a reader, sluicing through remaining chapters is like downing successive boilermakers lined up on the dark, mahogany bar steadying his elbows.
Reading up to the point of revelation, the chapters alternate between the husband, Nick, who narrates in first person and gives a chronological progression of the story line from the day his wife, Amy, has disappeared, and the diary entries of Amy during the earlier time period leading up to her disappearance. It is essentially the story of a failing marriage. Nick has lost his job as a writer for a magazine publisher in NY, is unable to get another job, and has burned through his savings. He decides to return to his midwestern hometown to help his twin sister care for their cancer-stricken mother, and maybe get another career start. He borrows money from Amy, drawing down her trust fund, and partners with his sister to open a bar in town. To keep up his credentials as a writer, he also teaches a journalism class at the local community college.
From Amy's diary entries we notice she is unrelentingly optimistic and supportive of Nick, even as he seems to decline into a narcissistic, self-centered and immature man. Why Amy, an attractive daughter of a wealthy family, well educated, and clever, should remain so supportive of Nick seems a mystery to us.
(spoiler alert: it's a good read, so if you enjoy a good mystery, get the book and read it before returning to the writing crafts discussion).
Suddenly, Nick's narrative startles the reader: during a police investigation of his wife's disappearance, he admits to having an affair with one of his young students. At this point, if the reader has limited patience with mundane, modern romance plots, he's hoping Nick will quickly be convicted and hopefully executed for 'disappearing' his wife. We suspect Nick has proven himself to be an unreliable narrator about what was going on. However we notice we're only half-through the book, so we decide to continue a bit to see if the author has any other surprises (it should be said all the author's surprises are well earned and fit her plot).
Abruptly, Amy's diary entries end, and she begins narrating what has been occurring to her since the day of her disappearance. The diary, discovered by police investigators as she had planned, was prevaricated by Amy to point suspicion toward Nick. She is actually in hiding now while the police investigation into the disappearance draws tighter around Nick. Amy is revealed to the reader as a psychotically unreliable narrator, and further story events are stunning.
Even more stunning is the story denouement, as Amy checkmates Nick into continuing their marriage, and on her terms.
Nick's example of an unreliable narrator lies in his omission of key information that would have led us to form a different view of his character, up until he makes the disclosure of infidelity. This is one of the more common signs of unreliable narrators, where the narrator hides essential truths, mainly through evasion, omission, and obfuscation, without ever overtly lying. Other common types include contradicting oneself, or explicitly lying to other characters. Holden Caulfield, in Catcher in the Rye, signals his unreliable narrator's role with various instances of evasion, obfuscation, and lying. In his case, it all seems to work agreeably well in the story as the bravado of a sensitive, confused youth, facing entry into an adult world. Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, occasionally falls into a role of unreliable narrator as he reports events he couldn't have known about, and obfuscates with intentional fantasy.
Another memorable story of an unreliable narrator was in I am the Cheese, by Robert Cormier. It is a very dark and discomforting novel in which we think we're accompanying a boy, Adam, riding his bicycle from Massachusetts to Vermont to visit his father there in a hospital. The family had been in a witness protection program as a result of his father being a whistle-blower on some sort of government corruption scheme. A subsequent auto accident involving the family killed the mother and injured Adam and his father. During his bicycle trip Adam meets with various spooky events and people, and a sort of deja vue atmosphere prevails along the way; he oddly recalls seeing some of the places before. When he gets to the hospital and is being interviewed there by a doctor, we realize Adam has some sort of psychiatric condition and is actually himself a patient there, as are some of the people he has reported meeting on his trip. In fact, the entire bicycle trip has been occurring on the hospital grounds.
However, none of these unreliable narrators come even close to the psychopathic performance of Amy as an unreliable narrator in Gone Girl.
By: Wendy Orr,
on 2/4/2012
Blog: Wendy Orr's author journal (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: unreliable narrator, writing in the first person, young adult literature, creative writing, YA lit, study guide, Peeling the Onion, Add a tag
.jpg)
Doing a study guide is an interesting way to discover things about your own books - especially if you do it 16 years after the book was published. A bit of distance, you could say.
Or, since Peeling the Onion was written in the first person, 'I could say.' And I, of course, can say anything I want. That's what fiction writers do – and so do first person fictitious narrators.
The problem with first person narration is that it's only one person's point of view. The other characters' motives, thoughts and beliefs (and their actions) are seen purely through the protagonist's eyes. The more absorbed the reader is with that protagonist, the harder it is to step back and wonder if there could be another side to the story.
As I was going through some of the notes that teachers and student teachers have sent me for this book over the years, it struck me that many of them, and most students, believe everything that Anna says – about her emotions and actions, which is good, because the point of her internal dialogue was to report as truly as she (or the author behind her) possibly could – but also about the other characters. And that's a problem.I love my Anna. She's a teenage girl fighting for her life and independence; at different times she's depressed, determined, overwhelmed, angry, bitter, hopeful, and occasionally many of these at the same time, or at least on the same day. People who are angry, wounded and bewildered do not always make reliable reporters. Teenage girls have been known (just occasionally!) to focus their dislike of someone on superficial characteristics like hairy legs. As readers we have to stand back and remember that, and as writers we need to drop a few clues, without ever stepping outside the narrator - because the main point of using the first person is for the reader to be pulled in and identify with that 'I.'
And if that sounds very clinical, it's what I'm thinking as I do notes 16 years later. At the time it was just what felt right after several drafts in the third person. I'm probably a bit more conscious now of why I make decisions once I've made them, but feeling right, or sounding right when I read it aloud, is still the only way I know how to choose which way to tell the story.
The Study Notes will be posted on my website as soon as my publisher has prettied them up for me. Email me if you need them earlier.
Posted on 3/4/2010
Blog: Through The Tollbooth (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: jacqueline houtman, psychic distance, reinvention of thomas edison, unreliable narrator, science, fact and fiction, Add a tag
“Good fiction and nonfiction have a lot in common—clarity, logical flow, economy of words. Every passage, every word must have a purpose, whether the characters and situations are real or made up.”
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: unreliable narrator, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 5 of 5
By: [email protected],
on 10/26/2014
Blog: Perpetually Adolescent (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Books, Family, siblings, book review, growing up, chimpanzee, unreliable narrator, dysfunctional family, karen joy fowler, Book Reviews - Fiction, animal liberation, we are completely beside ourselves, Add a tag
By: Jack O'Rourke,
on 2/26/2013
Blog: gael writer (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Robert Cormier, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, unreliable narrator, Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, I am the Cheese, Add a tag
 |
| "I remember her as a plain-looking girl, narrow as a stick, shy, prudish, wouldn't want to show an inch of skin from chin to ankles when about," said our unreliable narrator. |
Reading up to the point of revelation, the chapters alternate between the husband, Nick, who narrates in first person and gives a chronological progression of the story line from the day his wife, Amy, has disappeared, and the diary entries of Amy during the earlier time period leading up to her disappearance. It is essentially the story of a failing marriage. Nick has lost his job as a writer for a magazine publisher in NY, is unable to get another job, and has burned through his savings. He decides to return to his midwestern hometown to help his twin sister care for their cancer-stricken mother, and maybe get another career start. He borrows money from Amy, drawing down her trust fund, and partners with his sister to open a bar in town. To keep up his credentials as a writer, he also teaches a journalism class at the local community college.
From Amy's diary entries we notice she is unrelentingly optimistic and supportive of Nick, even as he seems to decline into a narcissistic, self-centered and immature man. Why Amy, an attractive daughter of a wealthy family, well educated, and clever, should remain so supportive of Nick seems a mystery to us.
(spoiler alert: it's a good read, so if you enjoy a good mystery, get the book and read it before returning to the writing crafts discussion).
Suddenly, Nick's narrative startles the reader: during a police investigation of his wife's disappearance, he admits to having an affair with one of his young students. At this point, if the reader has limited patience with mundane, modern romance plots, he's hoping Nick will quickly be convicted and hopefully executed for 'disappearing' his wife. We suspect Nick has proven himself to be an unreliable narrator about what was going on. However we notice we're only half-through the book, so we decide to continue a bit to see if the author has any other surprises (it should be said all the author's surprises are well earned and fit her plot).
Abruptly, Amy's diary entries end, and she begins narrating what has been occurring to her since the day of her disappearance. The diary, discovered by police investigators as she had planned, was prevaricated by Amy to point suspicion toward Nick. She is actually in hiding now while the police investigation into the disappearance draws tighter around Nick. Amy is revealed to the reader as a psychotically unreliable narrator, and further story events are stunning.
Even more stunning is the story denouement, as Amy checkmates Nick into continuing their marriage, and on her terms.
Nick's example of an unreliable narrator lies in his omission of key information that would have led us to form a different view of his character, up until he makes the disclosure of infidelity. This is one of the more common signs of unreliable narrators, where the narrator hides essential truths, mainly through evasion, omission, and obfuscation, without ever overtly lying. Other common types include contradicting oneself, or explicitly lying to other characters. Holden Caulfield, in Catcher in the Rye, signals his unreliable narrator's role with various instances of evasion, obfuscation, and lying. In his case, it all seems to work agreeably well in the story as the bravado of a sensitive, confused youth, facing entry into an adult world. Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, occasionally falls into a role of unreliable narrator as he reports events he couldn't have known about, and obfuscates with intentional fantasy.
Another memorable story of an unreliable narrator was in I am the Cheese, by Robert Cormier. It is a very dark and discomforting novel in which we think we're accompanying a boy, Adam, riding his bicycle from Massachusetts to Vermont to visit his father there in a hospital. The family had been in a witness protection program as a result of his father being a whistle-blower on some sort of government corruption scheme. A subsequent auto accident involving the family killed the mother and injured Adam and his father. During his bicycle trip Adam meets with various spooky events and people, and a sort of deja vue atmosphere prevails along the way; he oddly recalls seeing some of the places before. When he gets to the hospital and is being interviewed there by a doctor, we realize Adam has some sort of psychiatric condition and is actually himself a patient there, as are some of the people he has reported meeting on his trip. In fact, the entire bicycle trip has been occurring on the hospital grounds.
However, none of these unreliable narrators come even close to the psychopathic performance of Amy as an unreliable narrator in Gone Girl.
0 Comments on unreliable narrator as of 2/27/2013 1:29:00 AM
Add a Comment
By: Lisa Gail Green,
on 10/1/2012
Blog: Paranormal Point of View (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Character, filtering, unreliable narrator, Add a tag
Blog: Paranormal Point of View (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Character, filtering, unreliable narrator, Add a tag
First of all, congratulations to the winner of VANQUISHED: Nikkihasabookshelf!
Amy asked a couple of weeks ago to see a post on unreliable narrators and I thought that was a great idea.
First we need to understand what an unreliable narrator is. Does that mean the MC lies? Well, it can. But it can mean more than that as well. No matter who is telling a story, his own perceptions, memories, and feelings will influence what he recalls or even if he recalls what actually happened. So as a writer when I write in first person, I have to find the character's voice and experience everything from her perspective.
What am I saying? Character is everything in this situation. That and filtering through the character's eyes. If your MC is conceited, for example, a great way to show that is to have her make an obviously neutral situation all about her.
But if you're writing a story that needs an unreliable narrator for plot purposes here are some rules to remember:
- Don't keep vital information from your readers. That will only frustrate them. That doesn't mean you have to spill everything up front, but don't deliberately keep them out of the loop just so you can surprise them later. Plant clues by making it clear that the narrator may not be trustworthy. Drip in the real info like you do backstory.
- Stay true to your character. Don't take a truthful MC and suddenly have her lie for no good reason just because you need a way to do something. It's true characters can do surprising things, but if you've done a good job getting into his head, you will also have planted enough info that makes that unconventional act/decision natural and understandable to the reader.
- Have fun! Unreliable narrators can be a blast to write. It's a great opportunity to exercise that illusive voice. In fact, it's not a bad idea to go ahead and practice just for an exercise. Who knows? Maybe you'll end up falling in love and writing a whole book. ;D
Any other tips? Examples? Share!!
13 Comments on Unreliable Narrators, last added: 10/7/2012
Display Comments
Add a Comment
By: Wendy Orr,
on 2/4/2012
Blog: Wendy Orr's author journal (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: unreliable narrator, writing in the first person, young adult literature, creative writing, YA lit, study guide, Peeling the Onion, Add a tag
.jpg)
Doing a study guide is an interesting way to discover things about your own books - especially if you do it 16 years after the book was published. A bit of distance, you could say.Or, since Peeling the Onion was written in the first person, 'I could say.' And I, of course, can say anything I want. That's what fiction writers do – and so do first person fictitious narrators.
The problem with first person narration is that it's only one person's point of view. The other characters' motives, thoughts and beliefs (and their actions) are seen purely through the protagonist's eyes. The more absorbed the reader is with that protagonist, the harder it is to step back and wonder if there could be another side to the story.As I was going through some of the notes that teachers and student teachers have sent me for this book over the years, it struck me that many of them, and most students, believe everything that Anna says – about her emotions and actions, which is good, because the point of her internal dialogue was to report as truly as she (or the author behind her) possibly could – but also about the other characters. And that's a problem.I love my Anna. She's a teenage girl fighting for her life and independence; at different times she's depressed, determined, overwhelmed, angry, bitter, hopeful, and occasionally many of these at the same time, or at least on the same day. People who are angry, wounded and bewildered do not always make reliable reporters. Teenage girls have been known (just occasionally!) to focus their dislike of someone on superficial characteristics like hairy legs. As readers we have to stand back and remember that, and as writers we need to drop a few clues, without ever stepping outside the narrator - because the main point of using the first person is for the reader to be pulled in and identify with that 'I.'
And if that sounds very clinical, it's what I'm thinking as I do notes 16 years later. At the time it was just what felt right after several drafts in the third person. I'm probably a bit more conscious now of why I make decisions once I've made them, but feeling right, or sounding right when I read it aloud, is still the only way I know how to choose which way to tell the story.
The Study Notes will be posted on my website as soon as my publisher has prettied them up for me. Email me if you need them earlier.
0 Comments on The unreliable narrator: writing in the first person as of 1/1/1900
Add a Comment
Posted on 3/4/2010
Blog: Through The Tollbooth (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: jacqueline houtman, psychic distance, reinvention of thomas edison, unreliable narrator, science, fact and fiction, Add a tag
“Eddy’s voice came easily, and I grew quite fond of the boy. Plot was harder.”
“Good fiction and nonfiction have a lot in common—clarity, logical flow, economy of words. Every passage, every word must have a purpose, whether the characters and situations are real or made up.”
–Jacqueline Houtman
The loose theme this week (besides introducing three terrific new releases and the stories behind them) has been to take a look at how authors use fact and fiction to inform as well as entertain.
So before I introduce our last author interview, I have to add another fantastic title to this week’s FACT and FICTION books—it hasn’t been released yet but the ARCS are out, so this is a mini-Tollbooth celebration. It’s for our own Tami Lewis Brown’s Soar Elinor, coming from Farrar Straus and Giroux this October. Add a Comment
I think one good unreliable but likeable character is Sage from The False Prince. Great things to consider.
Great advice! I agree, you shouldn't hide information from readers just to keep certain twists shocking. There are so many ways to plant clues that will only seem obvious during re-reads, so why not go that route instead of angering readers with deliberate information exclusion?
I haven't tried writing with an unreliable narrator yet - they're tough! I have read a few where we as readers realize the character is flaky & missing stuff & that adds to the fun!
These are great tips. Mine? Read books w/unreliable narrators. Like that book Chime. Very good. Thanks, LG! :o) <3
I notice a lot in contest entries, agents are always saying "I love this unreliable narrator!"
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Good one!
I have tried on several occasions to write a book with an unreliable narrator, but so far without success. I think it is a difficult technique to master. My favorite such story is Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. I read it 25 years ago and it still blows my mind. I wish I could write like that.
These are great tips! I've never written an unreliable character, but I admire writers who do, and pull it off.
I think an unreliable character would be a great challenge. Hmmmm, isn't Nano coming up?
To be honest, I'm usually not a fan of unreliable narrators. I want to trust the person who's telling the story! But sometimes they can be very effective. Great tips!
Cool post. My current MC will probably be unreliable, but that's just part of what she's going through, and not through any design of my own. Thanks for clarifying the muddle!
Great post, Lisa. I'm going to go an practice what you preach. You'll see ... :)
Hugs,
M.
Nice article, thanks for the information.
I've always wanted to write an unreliable narrator but it seems to hard! These tips make me think maybe I can do it though. Thank you!