Reading with Style discussion

20.5 - They read
Read a book that has multiple narrators, a narrative mode in which parts of the story are told from the points of view of different characters.

Are two narrators enough? Is it okay if they don't share the narration equally?

I'm considering The Pale Blue Eye for this. As best I can tell from looking at it, most of the narration is done by the detective, but there are certain chapters narrated by Edgar Allan Poe.

Yes, two narrators will do. This looks like a good one - I hope you'll review it!

Does it matter if the multiple narrators are third person? I am trying to figure out from the task description if the narrators actually need to narrate (which I usually associate with first person).

Thanks

Sometimes one (or even two) of the narrators can be third person, but the main part of the book should be told in the first person.

Here is a good article with some examples:

multiple narrators blog

Darn, ok. Thanks for the explanation. The book I was looking at is The Way of Kings which switches between characters completely (they are all in different locations and don't interact at least so far) but it is all told in third person. Each chapter so far is a different character.

I started reading it and realized that I may want to save it for the challenge, but it doesn't appear to fit.

Gosh, Rachel, it's a long one and would definitely qualify for a heap of jumbo points. You could always slip it into the 10-point Fall Freebie so that you could get those.

Thanks, I will probably do that.

My apologies, I wasn't as clear as I could have been when writing this task (this isn't really a well-defined, specific narration mode). I do not think multiple narrators must be limited to, or even primarily, first-person narrations.

This is generally the intent behind this task:
"Have you ever read a book and wondered, 'There has to be another side to this story.' Many authors solve that mystery for you by giving you two, three, and even more voices and narrators in one novel in order to give you multiple perspectives of the same situation."

As long as the book is structured to be from the perspectives of multiple narrators, whether told in first-person, third-person limited, or a mix of both, it fits this task.

Thanks, Liz. Why was I confused? ;-)

Yeah! I'm planning to re-read War and Peace for this next challenge -- it's a very long book, lots of style points. I see it will fit 20.8 Opera (yeah!) and it looks like it will fit here also as it is told in 3rd person following a large variety of characters.

What is the difference between 20.5 they read and 20.3 s/he read?

Deedee wrote: "What is the difference between 20.5 they read and 20.3 s/he read?"

20.3 S/he read is told very matter-of-factly, more like a newspaper story. The narration does not include any of the thoughts and feelings of the characters. You must discern those from either the actions of the characters or from any dialogue.

With multiple narrators (They read), we see the story through the eyes of several characters, including their thoughts and feelings. This can be multiple first-person narrators or multiple third-person limited narrators:

"Miss Brill put up her hand and touched her fur. Dear little thing! It was nice to feel it again. She had taken it out of its box that afternoon, shaken out the moth powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes."

Third-person objective (S/he reads) is the opposite; it does not portray a character's thoughts or feelings. It does not interpret actions or relay what thoughts are going through the minds of the characters, it can only report on what is observed. We are not seeing the scene through the perspective of any specific character; it almost doesn't have a narrator (any more than a newspaper article has a narrator):

"As he entered the aisle between the rigid lines of soldiers he seemed slightly embarrassed, and grinned and nodded to a compadre here and there in the ranks."

OK thanks Liz M I think I get it now (and forgive the cross-posting with 20.3 help thread)

Deedee wrote: "OK thanks Liz M I think I get it now (and forgive the cross-posting with 20.3 help thread)"

No worries, better to have the answer twice (or four times, thanks Elizabeth!) than not at all. I have to admit what seemed so easy at first glance is apparently complicated/confusing. I am certainly learning a lot this season!

I'm using The Gap Year for this one. It's told from the pov of 2 different characters. I just started it, so far it's interesting.

Just to verify, it seems the Game of Thrones series would work for this task. . .

Given that every book in A Song of Ice and Fire is written with multiple POVs I would protest if it wasn't. :)

Kate S wrote: "Just to verify, it seems the Game of Thrones series would work for this task. . ."

It was one of three examples given on the wiki page I referenced for this task.

I think I'm going to go with Darling Jim for this task.

I think it works for 20.4 since some of the book is written as exceprts from diaries.

"told from the POVs of a postman, a dead woman and her diary, and a live woman and her diary, among others. "

Plus, my library has it in CD Audiobook format. Wa-hoo!

I found this listing from GR user's shelves:

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/m...

I don't know if all the entries are appropriate, but it's worth looking over.

I'm going to read Let the Great World Spin, which has 2 combos - 5 star from JaymeVA, and it's on the IMPAC page.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I found this listing from GR user's shelves:

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/m...

I don't know if all the entries are appropriate, but it's worth looking over.

I'm going to rea..."

Ooh -- Let the Great World Spin is sitting in my headboard right now. Maybe I should use it for this task, and move Darling Jim to task 20.4.

Now I'm off to try to figure out the 5 star ratings from other members...

Would "third person omniscient" fit this task as it involves describing events from more than one character's POV (including that character's thoughts and emotions) as well as events known only by an omniscient narrator? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrativ... says that alot of 19th century authors, like Tolstoy, Dickens and Austen use this method. Alot of sf/f novels use it also.

Thanks!

Deedee wrote: "Would "third person omniscient" fit this task as it involves describing events from more than one character's POV (including that character's thoughts and emotions) as well as events known only by ..."

Yes. This is the most common way of telling a story. The big requirement for this task is that the story be told from multiple points of view, and not all third person omniscient fits this. Often an author will start a novel with one central character in a group and create the general setting. In one of the next chapters, s/he will switch to another setting in which the first character is not present, so that the story must be told from the point of view of someone else. This is what is required for this task.