First Person

Through junior high and most of high school, I refused to read first person narratives. I hated them with a passion because I had come across so many that were poorly executed. I now read first person narratives, and truth be told, some of my favorite are written in this way. I do, however, still come across quite a few that I can finish. Here are some of the reasons why:

Top Three First Person Narratives Pet Peeves:

1. There are multiple viewpoints, but everyone sounds the same. I have read so many books like this — men, women, and children of different backgrounds all sound the same. It is impossible and shows such a weakness on the writer’s part that I have to stop reading before I simply through the book across the room. If the narrator is first person, I like to be able to tell the identity of the viewpoint character just by their speech patterns and not by having their name at the top of the chapter. No two people sound exactly the same. If an author can’t write multiple viewpoints properly, she should write in third person and save themselves and the readers from consternation. (One book that defies this trap is The Help. The Help had three viewpoint characters and each had rich personal tones.)

2. Everyone sounds like a poet/professor of English Literature. Literary fiction writers should avoid first person at all costs. It doesn’t work as very few people other than literary fiction writers soliloquize in their heads. I can’t stand reading about children, soldiers, uneducated maids who speak in poetic narrative. It might be pretty, but its not believable. I have heard wonders upon wonders about The Shadow of the Wind. I wanted to like it, but I could not get past the fact that the narrator, who was a children, spoke to the reader like he was a professor of English. The book might have been wonderful, but I couldn’t get past that first person barrier to the good stuff.

3. Men sound like women, and women sound like men. Sometimes an author can successfully write a first person narrative for a character of the opposite sex. It does happen. Unfortunately, it too often fails miserably. If I begin a book not knowing the gender of the main character, I will make a guess based on their tone and syntax. There have been times, only when authors are writing as the opposite sex, that I have gotten it wrong. This was the case most recently with The Art of Civility. I was certain that the main character was a man for the first several pages, but then she began talking about her husband. I put down the book immediately, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to appreciate whatever story was to come because of that glaring distraction. The Maximum Ride books are also like this. I was sure Max was a boy for a really decent sized chunk of that first book. I really wish editors would notice this sort of thing and tell the writers to change narrative style. It would make everything so much less annoying for the rest of us.