06-07-2023, 03:53 PM | #1 | |
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Narrator, not omniscient, not unreliable, not protagonist
I'm thinking of books where the narrator drives things. I hate unreliable narrators; I think that's a cheap trick. But a narrator doesn't have to know everything and doesn't have to be the protagonist.
(Made up example.) Quote:
"The Razor's Edge", W. Somerset Maugham "The Drifters", James A. Michener |
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06-07-2023, 04:22 PM | #2 |
o saeclum infacetum
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How about Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby? He's borderline, I suppose; he has his biases, but he essentially gives a truthful account.
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06-07-2023, 05:27 PM | #3 | |
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Quote:
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) has a pretty good radio play (in German): https://www.ardaudiothek.de/episode/.../ndr/12699493/ After reading if for the umpteenth time and hearing the radio play a few times I've come to the conclusion that Nick has respect for Gatsby because he had Nick's lawn mowed for him before his tea with Daisy. Of course, I could have missed something. |
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06-07-2023, 07:03 PM | #4 |
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An Artist of the Floating World. Kazuo Ishiguro. He is super unreliable, but its brilliant.
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06-07-2023, 07:17 PM | #5 |
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06-07-2023, 07:22 PM | #6 |
o saeclum infacetum
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I thought of one, but it's not one I can recommend.
Noel Strachan in A Town Like Alice tells a straight story and he's both important yet tangential to the main story. However, not only is the racism off-putting (depending on where you fall on the "of its times" spectrum), it's a failure technically, since Noel ends up relating things he couldn't possibly have known, i.e., he's omniscient where he couldn't be. |
06-07-2023, 08:43 PM | #7 | |
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Quote:
Also, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", Agatha Christie: "Reader, I murdered him..." But let's not go down this rabbit hole. That fits the criteria. I've read everything by Nevil Shute. He spins a good yarn for an engineer. "No Highway" gets high marks for being prescient about the dangers of metal fatigue in airplanes. |
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