Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
I just started listening to Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. It goes back and forth between a female and male narrator depending on the point of view in the story. I find it annoying, and it takes you out of the story every time it switches.
Is this common to have multiple voices? Perhaps I've just never come across it before.
Do others like or hate it? Maybe it depends on the story.
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I listen to a lot of books that alternate narrators by chapter as the POV shifts. I just listened to Erin Kelly's
He Said/She Said, which does exactly that. I think it's generally effective and helps me remember whose version of events I am hearing.
It can get out of hand, though, after a certain point, but I think the problem is with the way the author has structured the story. Paula Hawkins's
Into the Water is a mess, with half a dozen different narrators voicing about twice that many characters who have chapters told from their POV. It was hard to follow as an audiobook, but I believe it would have been even more difficult to read the text.