Can you think of novels that have this structure?

January 23, 2024 8:37 AM

Can you think of a novel that is structured like this: D>>A>>B>>C>>D>>E>>F>>G>>H Or, if not like this exactly, something somewhat similar? Preference here is for literary novels rather than genre fiction. Thanks.
posted by swheatie to Media & Arts (30 answers total)

I don't understand your schematic. Do letters represent periods of time? So, for instance, a novel that started at time D, moved backwards to an earlier time and then proceeded forward in time, meeting up with and passing D?

I can only think of a genre novel that fits this pattern at the moment, Nick Harkaway's The Gone-Away World, which I read recently. But I do feel like it's a familiar pattern and hopefully other people will have examples, if that is what you're looking for.
posted by Well I never at 8:40 AM on January 23 [3 favorites]

Does this mean "beginning at a certain plot point, then going back ( in time ? or narrative?) and telling the story up to that point and past it to the end"?
posted by Zumbador at 8:41 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure that you can read Hopscotch that way
posted by thivaia at 8:44 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]

The Secret History (1992) by Donna Tartt begins with the death of "Bunny". It then flashes back to the beginning of the narrator's college experience and proceeds chronologically from there, with Bunny's death showing up again about halfway through.
posted by What is E. T. short for? at 8:51 AM on January 23 [12 favorites]

Possibly Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum? It begins with the protagonist's story, skips back to the start of the narrative, then forward. Plus, the plot jumps around through history, starting with the first Crusade and rolling forward.
posted by SPrintF at 8:54 AM on January 23

I have the same question as Well I Never. What do "A" "B" "C" "D" and "E" represent in your question? Time shifts, narratives, plot threads?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:59 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]

Assuming this question is what we think it is, TVTropes' How We Got Here has a Literature subpage.
posted by zamboni at 9:02 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]

I think this is a little different from "How We Got Here", because (assuming I'm reading this correctly), the request isn't for stories that start at the end and then have a big flashback, but for stories that start somewhere in the middle and have a flashback and then keep going forward.

Stephen Saylor's Roman mystery "Raiders of the Nile" is structured this way, I think.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 9:11 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]

When I saw the schematic I immediately thought of The Secret History.
posted by guessthis at 9:18 AM on January 23

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers has two separate timelines - a 1950s and a 1980s timeline, and alternates between the two. The 1950s one is in straight chronological order, but the 1980s one does something like what you suggest (starts in the "middle", goes back to the (1980s) "beginning", then moves forward through that middle to the end.)
posted by Daily Alice at 9:24 AM on January 23

Response by poster: Sorry, I assumed my little schematic was as clear to others as it was to me. The letters stand for Time/Event. So, starting at a certain time/event, then going back to the past and working from the past up to the opening time/event, then moving forward from there.
posted by swheatie at 9:36 AM on January 23

I think this is a little different from "How We Got Here", because (assuming I'm reading this correctly), the request isn't for stories that start at the end and then have a big flashback, but for stories that start somewhere in the middle and have a flashback and then keep going forward.

“A type of In Medias Res/Whole Episode Flashback, where the story opens at a point at the middle or near the end of the story, and the bulk of the story is spent showing how the character got to this point.”

posted by zamboni at 9:36 AM on January 23

For some reason all I can think of is this is exactly how The Emperor's New Groove is structured. So, riffing on that, any novel that starts with a "record scratch freeze frame" moment with the narrator saying, "Yup, that's me," would fit the bill, wouldn't it? Damned if I can think of any right now, though, I blame flu brain. So here's a link to the TVTropes page for this trope and maybe you'll find examples under the Literature section down below. Also see this link to the sub-trope of "How We Got Here".
posted by MiraK at 9:51 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]

This is a specific form of In Medias Res, a literary device so old that the term to describe it was coined in the first century BCE. It's common in Greek/Homeric-inspired epic poetry, with the two most prominent examples of this specific sub-form I can think of off the top of my head being the Aeneid, which opens with Aeneas being driven to Libya by a divine storm, and only tells the story of his flight from Troy after he arrives in Carthage, and Paradise Lost, which opens with Satan already in Hell and relies on him and others to tell the story of the revolt in Heaven.
posted by firechicago at 9:53 AM on January 23 [6 favorites]

Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games (it’s kind of a thriller; too genre?) has two main plot lines one that begins at Point A and goes forward (with a few flashbacks) braided with a second that more or less explains how a different character got to Point A. Then there’s a climax, and two subsidiary pieces, one mostly in the past and one mostly in the future, exploring two side plots.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:57 AM on January 23

If The Secret History fits, then several of the books written by Ruth Rendell (also writes as Barbara Vine) fit too. The House of Stairs; A Fatal Inversion. Rendell/Vine is considered a mystery writer but these books are not whodunits or detective novels. The House of Stairs is sort of a reworking if The Wings of the Dove by Henry James. A lot of her books involve some kind of secret in the past which is pointed to by events in the present time initially and then divulged.

Among literary authors I think Yiyun Li, Willam Trevor and Jhumpa Lahiri tend to do this kind of thing, albeit often in short stories. Modern authors with a lot of classical influence. I think The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead is like that too.
posted by BibiRose at 9:57 AM on January 23

The novel I'm currently reading is structured like this! Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray. Starts with the mysterious death of boarding school student Skippy, then recounts the events leading up his death, then depicts the unfolding of the aftermath.
posted by sohalt at 10:08 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]

I think Gone, Girl might fit this. The events meet up in (roughly) the middle-to-back-third of the book and then both timelines move forward (if I’m understanding correctly).
posted by conkystconk at 10:23 AM on January 23

Ave Barrera's very enjoyable novel The Forgery begins with a man poised to jump from a high wall. The remainder of Part One recounts how he came to be there; while in Part Two we follow the aftermath of his leap.
posted by misteraitch at 10:25 AM on January 23

This technique is called in media res (wikipedia), meaning "in the middle of the story".
posted by plant or animal at 10:42 AM on January 23 [4 favorites]

It makes me think of The Everlasting a bit, although the strands are a bit more interwoven there.
posted by tchemgrrl at 10:54 AM on January 23

This technique is called in media res (wikipedia), meaning "in the middle of the story".

More strictly, what swheatie describes involves in media res, but that is not a full description of what they're looking for. A narrative that begins in media res starts with the action already underway, but does not necessarily require that the narrative return to and play through events from the start, ab ovo. As the linked wikipedia article points out, Hamlet begins in media res, but subsequent exposition occurs through dialogue, not flashback narrative.
posted by zamboni at 11:11 AM on January 23 [3 favorites]

(Or, to put it a different way, as firechicago mentions, swheatie is referring to a specific form of in media res.)
posted by zamboni at 11:15 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]

Sort of an answer (it's sci-fi, and not quite the structure you're asking for) is Use of Weapons, by Iain M Banks, where one storyline goes backwards D > C > B > A and the other goes forwards F < G < H < I, but the chapters are interleaved, so the whole order is D > F > C > G > B > I > A.

Lord of Light (sorry, more sci-fi) also works backward before jumping to the end.
posted by chbrooks at 12:44 PM on January 23

Ancillary Justice (sorry, more genre fiction) does this: The first chapter starts at the beginning of the present narrative, then there is a past narrative that alternates with the present narrative until it catches up, then the novel continues with the present narrative. It goes D->A->E->B->F->C->G->H->I.

Also The Professor's House by Willa Cather has a big interlude in the middle where there's a past timeline, so it's more D->E->F->A->B->C->G->H->I.
posted by expialidocious at 1:45 PM on January 23

I enjoy this kind of thing too but it's surprisingly hard to find done well. My own shorthand for it is 2-1-3, because you get the middle bit, the back story, and then the conclusion.

Am I remembering incorrectly or does Iain Pears do this in both An Instance of the Fingerpost, and in The Portrait?

The first Sherlock Holmes Story, A Study In Scarlet, arguably does this.

Incidentally, the manga Berserk also does this. As does an effective anime retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo called Gankutsuo, which begins with the Count's arrival and backtracks at a crucial moment to the beginning of the story. I find this technique highly effective when used properly!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:14 PM on January 23

Lanark: A Life in Four Books explicitly goes 3, 1, 2, 4.
posted by aws17576 at 5:40 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]

The Odyssey is actually pretty close to this.

The story starts out with Penelope in jeopardy with the suitors and their son Telemachus rushing off to try to find his long-lost dad and bring him home in time to save the day.

Then we cut to Odysseus where we learn the story of the ten-year journey that led up to that point. We follow the story of the journey up to the point where both he and Telemachus arrive home to the very situation that started the story - Penelope and her suitors.

The last several chapters take it from there - how the suitors are dealt with and Odysseus bests them and returns to his throne and home.

Interestingly, the story of Odysseus' 10-year journey is told using the same technique - it starts in the middle of the journey. We proceed through a good part of the middle of the journey before the beginning is revealed - as stories told to and by people he visits in the middle of the journey.

So you could say the structure is just a little more messy, non-linear, and convoluted than yours, or you could say it's simply a double application of the same idea - two stories, one within the other, that start in the middle, then back up to the beginning and continue on to the end.
posted by flug at 8:36 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]

I've not read Catch 22 for a while but it's literary and definitely has this sort of structure where at the beginning you're at a certain [place], you go back and understand the context, see [place] differently next time you meet it, and go on from there.
posted by london explorer girl at 7:16 AM on January 25

Frankenstein does this a few times. I can't put it into the notation you have, but there are at least four flashbacks or back stories that happen through the course of the novel.
posted by Snowishberlin at 8:19 AM on January 26