----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Beaver" <
jumblejim@prodigy.net>
> What are some P.I. novels written in third person,
and what do
list-members
> think of third-person P.I. novels? Is first person a
tradition that
should
> not be lightly broken? Does it provide something to
the P.I. novel that
is
> vital to success? And what methods are available to
the first-person P.I.
> writer for describing scenes that his protagonist is
not present for (or
are
> such scenes anathema to the first-person
story)?
>
Lots of PI novels have and always will be written in third
person. After all, one of the greatest of them all begins,
"Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony..."
The main benefit of first person narrative is that
"colloquial" writing is expected (you're writing the
character's thoughts in the manner in which they speak). The
main drawback is, as you pointed out, it's hard to write
about a scene if the protagonist isn't physically present.
Techniques for circumnavigating this problem usually involve
some form of eavesdropping or having another character tell
the story to the protagonist retrospectively.
Lawrence Block, genius that he is, uses the following ploy in
"A Walk Among The Tombstones". The first chapter is third
person and reportorial: "On the last Thursday in March,
somewhere between ten-thirty and eleven in the morning,
Frances Khoury told her husband she was going out for a
while, she had marketing to do." Chapter two is first person
Scudder. Part-way through Scudder says, "He took me through
it, giving me the story essentially as I recounted it
earlier." (ie Chapter One).
Another drawback of first person is that it's hard to
describe the physical appearance of your protagonist without
sounding vain. And any kind of self-praise sounds
arrogant.
Incidentally, I know two people who won't read what they call
"I" novels. First question they ask, if I recommend
something. But I've never heard of anyone with an aversion to
third person narrative. I also know someone who has a
complete aversion to present tense novels. But that's another
topic...
Al Guthrie
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 23 May 2002 EDT