he said/she said
April 25, 2007 8:04 AM   Subscribe

Looking for good books with alternating narration.

In the same style as Rules of Attraction or The People of Paper or Theft.

Kind of like Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or Robber Bride

I would prefer to find books more like the first three examples than the latter two.

Recommendations?
posted by mustcatchmooseandsquirrel to Media & Arts (43 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
posted by blueshammer at 8:08 AM on April 25, 2007 [1 favorite]


Stupid and Contagious by Caprice Crane - Alternating "He Said/She Said" chapters.
posted by digiFramph at 8:14 AM on April 25, 2007


A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, but there are four narrators.
posted by awesomebrad at 8:15 AM on April 25, 2007


Perennial MeFi favorite Cloud Atlas qualifies.
posted by gnomeloaf at 8:20 AM on April 25, 2007


I can only think of two genre novels off the top of my head.

Ian Banks' Feersum Endjinn alternates with a narrator who speaks in an interesting but somewhat painful pidgin english.

Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz is primarily a single narrator but uses an alternate one when the primary is theoretically unavailable. It's used to interesting effect to create some uncertainty/mystery you'd otherwise have some trouble creating in a first person narrative.
posted by phearlez at 8:23 AM on April 25, 2007


Best answer: Only Revolutions, by Mark Z. Danielewski, has two narrators. To read the girl's side of the story you read the top half of the page. To read the boy's side, you flip the book over and read what was the bottom and is now the top half of the page, from the opposite end of the book. The author recommends that you read 8 pages at a time from each, taking turns.

I'm still undecided about whether I enjoyed the story, but I really liked the concept. I like when authors use the book as an artistic medium, instead of just as some paper to put the words onto. People of Paper appealed to me for the same reason.
posted by vytae at 8:23 AM on April 25, 2007


Revere Beach Boulevard, by Roland Merullo. Four different narrators.
posted by bondcliff at 8:26 AM on April 25, 2007


Would you count epistolary novels? I've only read one of your examples, so not sure if type of book is more or less important than alternating narration.
posted by paduasoy at 8:27 AM on April 25, 2007


Jeanette Winterson's "Sexing the Cherry" and "Gut Symmetries", Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying".
posted by hermitosis at 8:31 AM on April 25, 2007


Best answer: Although I must admit I don't think it's very similar to Rules of Attraction, the only book from your list I've read, the first book I thought of and a very challenging, rewarding work, is Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Of course, none of his narrators are what you might call literate, which is half the fun.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:31 AM on April 25, 2007


A memoire: Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together
posted by Doohickie at 8:32 AM on April 25, 2007


Perennial MeFi favorite Cloud Atlas qualifies.

As does Ghostwritten, Mitchell's excellent debut.
posted by jbickers at 8:34 AM on April 25, 2007


Best answer: Icelander by Dustin Long has an extensive section devoted to alternating narratives.
It plays with a other literary conventions as well.
posted by MonkNoiz at 8:39 AM on April 25, 2007


Response by poster: Epistolary novels might work, depending on how it is done. I am (roughly) looking for several people going through the same experience with different points of view. Extra points for interesting presentation (like vytae is describing).
posted by mustcatchmooseandsquirrel at 8:40 AM on April 25, 2007


William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:43 AM on April 25, 2007


Icelander
(and ignore the "a" in my previous comment)
posted by MonkNoiz at 8:44 AM on April 25, 2007


Best answer: Iain Banks' non-sci-fi Complicity has alternating narrators, one of whom writes in the second person and may or may not be the same person as the main narrator. Trainspotting and its sequel Porno are told from several different narrators, but might be tough going if you're not used to the vernacular.
posted by liquidindian at 8:49 AM on April 25, 2007


Would Cold Mountain work? I'm not as familiar with the books you listed, and am not certain if you're looking for books alternating points of view or storylines. Cold Mountain goes back and forth between a man and a woman, following what they're doing in different places, but more as a 3rd-person narrative (if I remember things at all).
posted by that girl at 8:51 AM on April 25, 2007


Almost all of Louise Erdich's novels do this. Tales of Burning Love is the best example, I think.
posted by peep at 8:54 AM on April 25, 2007


Best answer: The most fun one I've ever read is "The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins. [free at gutenberg.org]

Audible.com has a fantastic audiobook version, with each chapter read by a different actor. It may be the best audiobook I've ever heard. I rarely feel this way, but I enjoyed the audio version more than the text version.

The first narrator (and the best, in my opinion) in an eccentric butler who is obsessed with "Robinson Crusoe":

In the first part of ROBINSON CRUSOE, at page one hundred and twenty-nine, you will find it thus written:

"Now I saw, though too late, the Folly of beginning a Work before we count the Cost, and before we judge rightly of our own Strength to go through with it."

Only yesterday, I opened my ROBINSON CRUSOE at that place. Only this morning (May twenty-first, Eighteen hundred and fifty), came my lady's nephew, Mr. Franklin Blake, and held a short conversation with me, as follows:—

"Betteredge," says Mr. Franklin, "I have been to the lawyer's about some family matters; and, among other things, we have been talking of the loss of the Indian Diamond, in my aunt's house in Yorkshire, two years since. Mr. Bruff thinks as I think, that the whole story ought, in the interests of truth, to be placed on record in writing—and the sooner the better. ... Nobody knows as much as you do, Betteredge, about what went on in the house at that time. So you must take the pen in hand, and start the story...."

Two hours have passed since Mr. Franklin left me. As soon as his back was turned, I went to my writing desk to start the story. There I have sat helpless (in spite of my abilities) ever since; seeing what Robinson Crusoe saw, as quoted above—namely, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it. Please to remember, I opened the book by accident, at that bit, only the day before I rashly undertook the business now in hand; and, allow me to ask—if THAT isn't prophecy, what is?

I am not superstitious; I have read a heap of books in my time; I am a scholar in my own way. Though turned seventy, I possess an active memory, and legs to correspond. You are not to take it, if you please, as the saying of an ignorant man, when I express my opinion that such a book as ROBINSON CRUSOE never was written, and never will be written again. I have tried that book for years—generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco—and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad—ROBINSON CRUSOE. When I want advice—ROBINSON CRUSOE. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much—ROBINSON CRUSOE. I have worn out six stout ROBINSON CRUSOES with hard work in my service. On my lady's last birthday she gave me a seventh. I took a drop too much on the strength of it; and ROBINSON CRUSOE put me right again. Price four shillings and sixpence, bound in blue, with a picture into the bargain.

Still, this don't look much like starting the story of the Diamond—does it? I seem to be wandering off in search of Lord knows what, Lord knows where. We will take a new sheet of paper, if you please, and begin over again, with my best respects to you.

posted by grumblebee at 8:54 AM on April 25, 2007


Oops, I thought that didn't look quite right. I missed an "r" - it's Erdrich.
posted by peep at 8:55 AM on April 25, 2007


Best answer: This Guardian article has a decent discussion of books with multiple narration. I wholeheartedly recommend Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White and The Moonstone, both of which use multiple narrators to unravel their mysteries.
posted by otio at 8:55 AM on April 25, 2007


Ah, a minute too late. Grumblebee, I think Gabriel Betteredge ranks right up there with Tristram Shandy's Uncle Toby in the list of most likable characters in English lit.
posted by otio at 9:00 AM on April 25, 2007


"House of Sand and Fog" by Andre Dubus comes to mind for me. It alternates between the Behrani (the "bad" guy), and Kathy (the "good" guy) and halfway through the book, they add Lester, the police officer's narration.

The alternating narration is one of the few things I liked about the book (the other being rather vivid descriptions of scents).
posted by champthom at 9:23 AM on April 25, 2007


I thought Cold Mountain too, like that girl. Another great book is Brian Moore's Black Robe, which switches between the very different narrations of the leader of an Algonquin band and the French Jesuit missionary he's accompanying up-river.
posted by Abiezer at 9:30 AM on April 25, 2007


On, and Nobel winner Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red too. Murder mystery (and so much more) with multiple narrators.
posted by Abiezer at 9:31 AM on April 25, 2007


Although you don't really give a definition of "alternating narration," (I also haven't read your examples so it would be hard for me to consider your request for any examples to be closer to your first books), how about The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue where the chapters alternative between the changling's voice and the boy he replaced.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 9:35 AM on April 25, 2007


Shelley's "Frankenstein"
posted by hermitosis at 9:57 AM on April 25, 2007


Dangerous Liaisons by Laclos (epistolary).
Talking it Over by Julian Barnes (alternating narrators).
Success by Martin Amis (ditto).
Second/thirding The Woman in White (a cracking read) and My Name is Red. Also Dracula.
posted by Mocata at 10:20 AM on April 25, 2007


Seconding My Name Is Red. Each chapter has a different narrator, some re-appear, some don't. All use pseudonyms, and one may be the murderer.

Oh, and others might actually be drawings.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:32 AM on April 25, 2007


The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin has an alternating narrative motif between two difference species.
posted by plinth at 10:37 AM on April 25, 2007


Seven Types of Ambiguity, by Elliot Perlman.
posted by lhall at 11:50 AM on April 25, 2007


How about Rashomon?
posted by that girl at 12:04 PM on April 25, 2007


Sometimes a Great Notion, by Ken Kesey
posted by gnz2001 at 12:31 PM on April 25, 2007


Thinks... by David Lodge is an interesting novel that ties in some cognitive science, AI, and philosophy discussion with a love affair storyline. It goes back and forth between recorded accounts from the two main characters and a third-person objective narrator. A main theme of the novel is consciousness, and the impossibility of ever really knowing another's subjective experience of a particular phenomenon, so the narrative style really ties in with that theme, particularly when it (jarringly) moves into third-person omniscient.
posted by Webby Hippums at 1:14 PM on April 25, 2007


A Celibate Season by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard. Not only do the man and wife alternate narrating, the authors each wrote one of the characters. It's a very good read.
posted by EllenC at 1:32 PM on April 25, 2007


The Griffin & Sabine trilogy by Nick Bantock might fit the bill too, though it's less novel-y and more artsy. The books contain alternating letters/postcards exchanged by the two characters, sometimes in envelopes for you to pull out of the book, etc. The art is beautiful and the story is intriguing.

Also, Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosely is a more traditional novel whose chapters alternate between the guy and the girl as narrator. I'm only about a 3rd of the way through, so I can't comment on whether they eventually get around to describing the same events from their own perspectives, but I get the sense that it's moving that direction.
posted by vytae at 2:23 PM on April 25, 2007


OK, probably not epistolary novels as they don't tend to describe the same events from different points of view (the letter-writers presumably being away from each other - eg Sorcery and Cecelia). The only suggestion I can add may not be what you're looking for, as it's a series of books. Cynthia Voigt's children's books Dicey's Song, A Solitary Blue and Come a Stranger retell some of the same events from the perspectives of three different characters. Can't find any decent links. These are good books, moving and well-written.
posted by paduasoy at 2:29 PM on April 25, 2007


I'm partial to "English Passengers," by Matthew Kneale.
posted by greatgefilte at 3:15 PM on April 25, 2007


And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave alternates between first and third person.
posted by Martin E. at 3:23 PM on April 25, 2007


Holly Lisle's "Talyn" (though only one of the narrators is in first person, the other is third).
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:29 PM on April 25, 2007


The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano.
posted by Ironmouth at 7:12 PM on April 25, 2007


The Prestige by Christopher Priest.
posted by ilike at 12:01 PM on April 26, 2007


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