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Your favourite unreliable narrators?

38 replies

Blink1880 · 29/11/2023 20:52

I know it can over done - but I do love a book with an unreliable narrator and looking for some inspiration.

OP posts:
Hattie89 · 01/12/2023 08:48

Not a novel but The Tell Tale Heart by Poe has my favourite unreliable narrator!

The Life of Pi which is beautiful - both novel and film

Nick Carraway in Gatsby

Girl on the Train

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Lemevoir · 01/12/2023 13:30

Richard in The Beach by Alex Garland

JoanOgden · 01/12/2023 13:32

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (have forgotten actual name of the narrator)

Blink1880 · 01/12/2023 15:21

I have realised that every single one mentioned here that I’ve already read is a book that I’ve enjoyed (well not sure I can’t say I “enjoyed Lolita - but still like it as a book) so am definitely making room on the kindle for all the recommendations that I haven’t read already

OP posts:
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 01/12/2023 17:26

@napody And that's the power of the book!

clowniform · 01/12/2023 17:29

Thinking more about this, Pale Fire, Pnin and Sebastian Knight all have unreliable narrators/frames too. Are any of Nabokov's narrators reliable? Maybe in his Russian stuff?

Adding Francis Spufford, Golden Hill

MsInterpret · 01/12/2023 17:32

Faraday in The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

JaninaDuszejko · 01/12/2023 18:20

Surely all narrators are unreliable to a greater or lesser extent? There are those who are deliberately lying to us, those who are lying to themselves but think they are being honest to us, those who are mostly honest but occasionally not, or those who know less than we do so tell us more information that they themselves are aware of.

The Woman in White has every kind of narrator in it and is a complete joy.

Gowlbag · 05/12/2023 12:14

Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. As soon as I finished it I wanted to read it again through new eyes knowing the full picture.

SapphosRock · 05/12/2023 12:22

Brilliant suggestions on this thread!

Room by Emma Donaghue - narrated by a 5 year old so get an unusual (and less harrowing) perspective of what is happening.

HolyMolyAnne · 05/12/2023 12:27

It has to be The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.

asplashofmilk · 05/12/2023 13:16

Ali Smith - The Accidental

dressedforcomfort · 05/12/2023 15:00

Not a novel as such, but I love all the narrators in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads.

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