ISO great novels in first-person POV

September 1, 2022 9:35 AM

Please give me your recommendations for excellent novels written in the first-person point of view. Any genre or publication date welcome. Works in English, French, or in translation welcome. Bonus points if they are also in the present tense.
posted by rpfields to Media & Arts (32 answers total)

I don't normally think of myself as an experimental novel person, but Wittgenstein's Mistress absolutely blew me away.

I also recommend Milkman by Irish novelist Anna Burns.

If you like historical fiction, Memoirs of Hadrian is another good one that doesn't seem to get a lot of attention these days. And I think Mary Renault's historical novels are pretty much all in first person.
posted by FencingGal at 9:55 AM on September 1, 2022 [8 favorites]

Oh god I love Wittgenstein's Mistress, mentioned above.

Captain Obvious answer: The Catcher in the Rye is first person though not the present tense and no, you don't have to admire the character of the narrator to get something out of it as a book!
posted by less-of-course at 10:13 AM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I read John Le Carre's The Perfect Spy just last month and it is superb. I went into it hoping it was a decent page-turner and was astonished to find it an avant garde first-person masterpiece.
posted by jebs at 10:21 AM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Perhaps you've already read it, but Camus' The Fall was the first one to come to mind since it has an interesting twist on the first person perspective: a person telling their story to you, though that conceit mostly drops away during the important bits. Plus you can choose English or French!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:24 AM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Kazuo Ishiguro's books are sublime. I am particularly a fan of WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS which is literally my favorite book (trust me, I know how childish that sounds but there you have it)... however, most people (including Ishiguro) inexplicably believe it's his worst book, so maybe you want to try A PALE VIEW OF HILLS, or better yet, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY. This last is imo his most accessible novel. Also it won the Booker prize.

IMO you should avoid BURIED GIANT, THE UNCONSOLED, and KLARA AND THE SUN. They're all three a bit ponderous and hard to "get".
posted by MiraK at 10:28 AM on September 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

My absolute favourite first person novels of the last year or so were The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich, My Year Abroad, by Chang-Rae Lee, and Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke. I didn’t know much about any of these before I read them, and I think it was better that way. I also loved Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch when I read it a few years ago.

If I had to choose one word to describe all of these it would be “immersive.” They were the kind of books where I would shut the rest of the world out while I was reading them, and I didn’t want to put them down till I was finished.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:33 AM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Experimental suggestion: The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth is an incredible novel.

It's a first-person perspective of the Norman invasion of England, and it's written in a pseudo-Old-English invented language. Takes a few chapters to get the hang of the prose, but once you do, it's powerfully immersive.

Technically not present tense, but it's a stream-of-consciousness blow-by-blow storytelling style, so it has a present feel to it.
posted by mekily at 10:35 AM on September 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Just about anything by David Mitchell, who does characters' voice so damn well. Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, Ghostwritten, Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet are some of his masterpieces.
posted by entropone at 10:38 AM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (won the Man Booker Prize in 2011)
I also love the novels of W.G. Sebald.
posted by perhapses at 10:42 AM on September 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

And I'm reading E.E. Cummings first novel, The Enormous Room which was just published by NYRB Classics.
posted by perhapses at 10:46 AM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels are in the first person. Brilliant but emotionally gruelling.
posted by praemunire at 10:49 AM on September 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yes yes yes to Wittgenstein's Mistress.

But even MORE yes to Godric, by the late Frederick Buechner, which is my probably the greatest immersive exploration of voice (in this case, that of a 12th century hermetic monk) that I have seen achieved in novelistic form. I honestly do not understand why more people don't evangelize about this book, it is so good. Masterful use of the first person (though not in the present tense).
posted by Dorinda at 10:55 AM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Seconding Erdrich's The Sentence. An earlier first person novel, The Round House, is also brilliant.
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 11:07 AM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Both Invisible Man and Notes from the Underground are in the first person.

So is The Bluest Eye.
posted by praemunire at 11:31 AM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is recounted by a narrator who is unable to recall his own name. Without giving too much away, this may be one of the least of his problems.
posted by scruss at 11:44 AM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mark Helprin’s Memoir From Antproof Case . Hilarious, clever, audacious, beautiful. An old man looks back in reverie on his life and the many unexpected turns taken. But much of the retelling is first-person from his younger self.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 11:56 AM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

My favourite first person narrators are Merrycat Blackwood from Shirly Jackson's We have always lived in the Castle, and the narrator in Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. They have both very rich inner lives and I'm fascinated by the way their minds work. The Piranesi narrator is one of the most likelable protagonists I've encountered in literature in a long time and Merrycat is a true horror, but very (and I think most literally) charming. It's very easy to get emotionally invested in them - I think they are also both quite perceptive, and curious and able to see beauty in all sorts of sometimes unusual stuff; it's a fun view point.

The narrator in Dodie's Smiths I capture the castle is also very fun and lovely. Filled me with such a sense of longing for being a sort of girl I never really was. Perceptive, curious, sensitive to beauty are boxes that are also checked here.
posted by sohalt at 12:43 PM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Don't forget Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn.
posted by JonJacky at 1:13 PM on September 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Sarah Water’s Tipping the Velvet is at least largely in the first person.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:43 PM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Madeline Miller Circe
Susanna Clarke Piranesi (styled as a series of journal entries)
Naomi Novik Spinning Silver (shifts between different first-person narrators)
Diane Setterfield The Thirteenth Tale (has a primary first-person narrator, but for much of the novel a long story is recounted to her in an unusual mix of 3rd and 1st person)
posted by polecat at 2:24 PM on September 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Jane Eyre is a classic for a reason! Dickens also wrote in the first person but I have fonder memories of the Brontes.

I enjoyed Tanith Lee's Don't Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine, which have an interesting twist on the first-person concept. Angela Carter's Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman is fun and first person but it is RACY even by today's standards so go in prepared.
posted by kingdead at 3:12 PM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Definitely written in first person, I can't find my copy right now but may be also present tense.
posted by happyfrog at 3:27 PM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook is all first person with a wonderful Möbius strip -like half twist at the end.
posted by jamjam at 4:12 PM on September 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

My Year of Rest and Relaxation, by Ottessa Moshfegh, is both first-person and present tense.
posted by somedaycatlady at 4:37 PM on September 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Angie Thomas' fantastic novel The Hate U Give is written in first-person, present tense.
posted by creepygirl at 5:13 PM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

2 books I read as a young person that I couldn’t get enough of, both written in first person:

The Bell Jar - Plath
The Stranger - Camus
posted by SomethinsWrong at 5:41 PM on September 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

So many of my faves have already been mentioned, however:

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
The Wild Geese by Mori Ogai
Kokoro Botchan by Soseki
69 by Ryu Murakami
The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt

I'm a little disappointed that GenjiandProust did not recommend Proust, but I'm going to make up for that by suggesting A Dance to the Music of Time, all 12 volumes.
posted by betweenthebars at 5:53 PM on September 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

Speaking of Ishiguro upthread, my absolute favorite of his is NEVER LET ME GO. Skip the movie, just read the book.
posted by basalganglia at 6:08 PM on September 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Ooooh yes, I second the vote for THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas. The first person voice in that book is distinctive and strong; it is imo the strongest element of a novel that excels in every other way too. Possibly the best answer for this particular thread!
posted by MiraK at 6:25 AM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

MeFi's own jscalzi has a pair of future police procedurals, _Lock In_ and _Head On_, written in first person. You can preview _Lock In_ over on Tor's blogsite to see if it fits your taste.
posted by hanov3r at 8:30 AM on September 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everybody, these are all great. You have reminded me of some old favourites and given me new ideas to explore.

Please keep 'em coming if anyone has more!
posted by rpfields at 10:30 AM on September 2, 2022

I'm a little disappointed that GenjiandProust did not recommend Proust, but I'm going to make up for that by suggesting A Dance to the Music of Time, all 12 volumes.

While Dance is very good, and, I believe, entirely in the first person, Proust is not, with the Swann sections effectively in the 3rd person. Technically, Marcel is narrating, so it’s still from his POV, but it’s long extended passages about other people’s lives (the book kind of comments on this).
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:53 AM on September 7, 2022