Friday, August 21, 2009

Second-Person Narrative

A rather unique writing style I have heard of, but have just started reading a novel set in this mode (review should be up in a couple of days). Not too many write in second-person it would seem difficult to pull off. In this narrative form the main character is "you" which may or may not be the subject but it is through another person the story is told.

An example would be the book I'm reading "The Reluctant Terrorist" which the entire novel evolves during a cafe dinner in which the Changez (the main character) talks to another person, but changez does all the talking and what is taking place in this cafe as he tells his story is all through his talking: 'I see you ordered the green tea.' 'Look the waitress has come to take our order.' for example.

This could be seen as more of a gimmick, but I find it quite engaging, I place myself as the one he is talking to, and so far has made for a quite enjoyable experience.

While there aren't many, have you read any of these sort of books? What was your experience with them? Please tell me.

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