Books with an unnamed narrator or main character
October 8, 2024 8:10 AM
I recently finished a book that was told by a first-person narrator who never tells the reader her actual name. She notes other characters using her name but without directly quoting them when they do. Are you aware of other books, short stories or movies that use this device?
I am not naming the book I just finished in case people might consider it a spoiler that the narrator's name is never revealed. Any genres are welcome. Thanks!
I am not naming the book I just finished in case people might consider it a spoiler that the narrator's name is never revealed. Any genres are welcome. Thanks!
Moby Dick, perhaps. "Call me Ishmael" has always implied, to me, that "Ishmael" is not his real name.
posted by SPrintF at 8:19 AM on October 8
posted by SPrintF at 8:19 AM on October 8
Proust never names his narrator. In seven volumes!
posted by praemunire at 8:24 AM on October 8
posted by praemunire at 8:24 AM on October 8
Vandermeer's Annihilation which AFAICR names none of the characters, including the narrator and main character, instead assigning codenames based on mission function. Maybe in books 2 and 3 there are names, I can't recall.
Annihilation does other strange things, like having a biologist character who seems unable to access the word "alligator" in her brain, instead often referring to them as the large aquatic reptiles. It fits in the overall theme and it's a great subtle way to unsettle the reader.
posted by glonous keming at 8:24 AM on October 8
Annihilation does other strange things, like having a biologist character who seems unable to access the word "alligator" in her brain, instead often referring to them as the large aquatic reptiles. It fits in the overall theme and it's a great subtle way to unsettle the reader.
posted by glonous keming at 8:24 AM on October 8
The narrator in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man remains unnamed.
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:25 AM on October 8
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:25 AM on October 8
The narrator of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is the second Mrs de Winter; her first name is never revealed.
posted by What is E. T. short for? at 8:28 AM on October 8
posted by What is E. T. short for? at 8:28 AM on October 8
The first name of the protagonist in the Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels is never revealed.
posted by bac at 8:30 AM on October 8
posted by bac at 8:30 AM on October 8
Not sure if this counts, but the protagonist of Soldier of the Mist doesn’t learn his real name until the last page of the book. Up until that point he goes by somewhat random name that someone gave him.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:36 AM on October 8
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:36 AM on October 8
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
posted by ojocaliente at 8:41 AM on October 8
posted by ojocaliente at 8:41 AM on October 8
YA book Memoirs of a Tall Girl. The first-person protagonist is never named.
posted by mefireader at 8:42 AM on October 8
posted by mefireader at 8:42 AM on October 8
Roddy Piper's character (the protagonist) in John Carpenter's film They Live is never named.
He is listed in the credits as "Nada" (Spanish: nothing.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:43 AM on October 8
He is listed in the credits as "Nada" (Spanish: nothing.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:43 AM on October 8
The protagonist of The IPCRESS File (and sequels), by Len Deighton. The movie gives him a name, but Deighton never gives him one.
posted by BungaDunga at 8:44 AM on October 8
posted by BungaDunga at 8:44 AM on October 8
I believe that the narrator in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is nameless, or at least I have not yet noticed that his name is used.
posted by Frowner at 8:44 AM on October 8
posted by Frowner at 8:44 AM on October 8
I'm not sure it's important to the plot, but Uma Thurman's character's name in Kill Bill isn't revealed until the 2nd movie. She's known as "The Bride" in the first Kill Bill.
posted by hydra77 at 8:45 AM on October 8
posted by hydra77 at 8:45 AM on October 8
One of my recent favorite reads is Milkman by Anna Burns. The narrator is middle sister, and that's as close as we get to her identity. also it won the Booker.
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:58 AM on October 8
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:58 AM on October 8
The narrator in "Written on the Body" by Jeanette Winterson goes unnamed.
posted by kensington314 at 9:03 AM on October 8
posted by kensington314 at 9:03 AM on October 8
Inspector Morse's first name was unstated for the first several books. That may decidedly not count given the existence of the Endeavour series.
posted by hoyland at 9:08 AM on October 8
posted by hoyland at 9:08 AM on October 8
Also being vague because spoilerish, but a major character in The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is never named.
posted by teremala at 9:22 AM on October 8
posted by teremala at 9:22 AM on October 8
The play and TV adaptation of Fleabag. The audience is never told her name.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:29 AM on October 8
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:29 AM on October 8
The TV Tropes page will get you started, although like everything on that site it's extremely haphazard. The most recent book I've read with this device was All Fours.
posted by babelfish at 9:34 AM on October 8
posted by babelfish at 9:34 AM on October 8
Outline, by Rachel Cusk.
What a phenomenal book, and I'm apparently not the only one who thinks so.
posted by yellowcandy at 9:40 AM on October 8
What a phenomenal book, and I'm apparently not the only one who thinks so.
posted by yellowcandy at 9:40 AM on October 8
Well, there's always Beckett's The Unnamable.
posted by kickingtheground at 9:45 AM on October 8
posted by kickingtheground at 9:45 AM on October 8
Camus' The Stranger comes to mind as a classic text that fits this description. It's a nice concise read, too.
posted by gunwalefunnel at 9:50 AM on October 8
posted by gunwalefunnel at 9:50 AM on October 8
Dashiell Hammett' Continental Op novels and short stories (Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, short story collections; The Big Knockover, The Contiental Op, Nightmare Town) are told in the first person with an unnamed narrator.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:24 AM on October 8
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:24 AM on October 8
The first person narrator in the novel Mating by Norman Rush never tells us her name. She appears briefly in Rush's next novel Mortals which is narrated in the third person -- I recall her name appears there.
posted by JonJacky at 10:37 AM on October 8
posted by JonJacky at 10:37 AM on October 8
Most of Haruki Murakami's books are narrated by an unnamed first-person narrator.
posted by Jeanne at 10:52 AM on October 8
posted by Jeanne at 10:52 AM on October 8
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway. The reason for the protagonist’s namelessness is revealed as part of a big twist two-thirds of the way through the book.
posted by ejs at 10:52 AM on October 8
posted by ejs at 10:52 AM on October 8
Withnail and I
posted by tardigrade at 11:57 AM on October 8
posted by tardigrade at 11:57 AM on October 8
I can think of a book that (I believe) fits the bill, but the narrator's identity is something of a spoiler, despite not being named. Can't imagine it's the book you just read, but maybe!
Since you mentioned movies, Jet Li's character in Hero (2002) goes by "Nameless."
posted by xenization at 12:02 PM on October 8
Since you mentioned movies, Jet Li's character in Hero (2002) goes by "Nameless."
posted by xenization at 12:02 PM on October 8
Fleabag is excellent, and the protagonist's name is never said (although I think we're probably meant to assume it's Phoebe, like the creator Phoebe Waller-Bridges). And you also never hear anyone else's given name, except her sister's.
And in the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the protagonist's name is said a few times but not much. When I first read it, I loved that it wasn't even overtly obvious if the protagonist was male or female.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:11 PM on October 8
And in the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the protagonist's name is said a few times but not much. When I first read it, I loved that it wasn't even overtly obvious if the protagonist was male or female.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:11 PM on October 8
Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson never reveals the narrator's name or gender.
posted by less-of-course at 12:27 PM on October 8
posted by less-of-course at 12:27 PM on October 8
Compass by Murray Lee. "We exchanged a few pleasantries, which included my name. He repeated it only once, presumably to confirm that he had heard it right, then called me Guy for the remainder of the time I knew him. Not the French Guy. Just guy. As in white guy." The protagonist then gets called "Guy" for the rest of the book - we never do learn his real name. But we quickly learn he is an asshole. (Unreliable asshole narrator, but a very fun read.)
posted by sonofsnark at 12:27 PM on October 8
posted by sonofsnark at 12:27 PM on October 8
another camus that might fit: the plague.
posted by j_curiouser at 1:09 PM on October 8
posted by j_curiouser at 1:09 PM on October 8
José Saramago's works have a strong tendency towards this.
posted by teremala at 1:10 PM on October 8
posted by teremala at 1:10 PM on October 8
Murderbot never tells us its actual name-- the name that other constructs call it. It is the hardware ID on its network interface.
posted by hovey at 1:29 PM on October 8
posted by hovey at 1:29 PM on October 8
The narrator of Wells's The Time Machine isn't named, and the protagonist of his story-within-a-story is called only the Time Traveller.
posted by drdanger at 2:06 PM on October 8
posted by drdanger at 2:06 PM on October 8
Gene Wolfe - The Fifth Head of Cerberus
posted by crocomancer at 2:15 PM on October 8
posted by crocomancer at 2:15 PM on October 8
Heinrich Böll's Group Portrait with Lady uses this device, as does Rosa Liksom's Compartment no. 6. Neither of these are written in the first person though - in the first the narrator is 'the author', and in the latter the protagonist is 'the girl'.
posted by goo at 3:08 PM on October 8
posted by goo at 3:08 PM on October 8
I came in to say the narrator in du Maurier's Rebecca, but What is E. T. short for? already hit that. Still, there's:
Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory
Beatrice Sparks' (previously, Anonymous') Go Ask Alice
Philip Roth's Everyman
Henry James' The Aspern Papers
Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Tobias Wolff's Old School
Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman
Jhumpa Lahiri's Whereabouts (She wrote it in Italian and translated it, so the original is Dove Mi Trovo, which through my six years of Italian study on Duolingo I know literally means Where I Find Myself)
Margaret Atwood's Surfacing
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 3:16 PM on October 8
Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory
Beatrice Sparks' (previously, Anonymous') Go Ask Alice
Philip Roth's Everyman
Henry James' The Aspern Papers
Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Tobias Wolff's Old School
Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman
Jhumpa Lahiri's Whereabouts (She wrote it in Italian and translated it, so the original is Dove Mi Trovo, which through my six years of Italian study on Duolingo I know literally means Where I Find Myself)
Margaret Atwood's Surfacing
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 3:16 PM on October 8
Swing Time by Zadie Smith and I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman come to mind, although I don't remember if other characters use the narrator's name in the latter.
posted by omgwtfpmr at 3:20 PM on October 8
posted by omgwtfpmr at 3:20 PM on October 8
The Lovers Dictionary is experimental and fun in this way and in one or two others. Highly recommend.
posted by jander03 at 6:39 PM on October 8
posted by jander03 at 6:39 PM on October 8
Lament for Julia by Susan Taubes
posted by seemoorglass at 7:10 PM on October 8
posted by seemoorglass at 7:10 PM on October 8
In the very charming movie Once, the leads are nameless - even in the credits they’re just Boy and Girl.
The narrator in Mark Helprin’s Memoir from Antproof Case is unnamed; the book starts with “Call me Oscar Progresso.”
posted by punchtothehead at 3:32 AM on October 9
The narrator in Mark Helprin’s Memoir from Antproof Case is unnamed; the book starts with “Call me Oscar Progresso.”
posted by punchtothehead at 3:32 AM on October 9
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posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:18 AM on October 8