Unnamed mystery author is using a first person POV, and the main character is a young male detective. This character completely misjudges one of the "suspects". It turns out she is guilty, while he truly DID NOT believe she committed the murder and in fact he was close to falling for her.
And near the end of the book, when all has been laid bare, the author has the main character actually SAY to the "camera" (ie the readers), "gee, and here I was completely misled and fooled by her sweet nature, and that means YOU all were misled and fooled as well, because you were only seeing Suspect Girl as *I* saw her, and I was completely bamboozled."
Except... no. Numerous people who have read the book *immediately* recognized that this character was indeed the murderer, and lost all respect for the main character when he couldn't figure it out for himself. :-D In turn, they lost all respect for the author, because of the blatant insult to *their* intelligence in this character's summation of the situation ("I was fooled, you must have been too! Don't we feel stupid!"), and in the gimmicky nature of even having him say such a thing.
This, in the midst of a book that is widely praised for being "beautifully written" and has been greeted with much acclaim. The readers recognizing the murderer and getting irritated by Main Character's presumption of their gullibility, almost to a one also comment on the beauty of the writing. And none of them are going to buy another book by this author, or recommend said author's work to anyone.
So yes, tricky indeed. :) It was just so funny to have *just* been having this experience over the last two weeks, then to see this post on untrustworthy main characters in first person POV.
On the larger topic... from a reader's perspective, I don't know that I could or would appreciate the "craft" behind creating an untrustworthy main character who essentially lies to the reader. I can logically *recognize* the craft involved, but I think I'd get pissed off and stop trusting the author, even if she/he were careful to seed the elements of truth in there in other forms.
But then I'm a very character-driven reader. I do love untrustworthy characters, even/especially as main characters. But if they're lying to themselves and therefore essentially to me as the reader, I believe I would have a hard time not just feeling "tricked" by the author.
As a writer, due to my own gut reactions to the concept of reading a lying first person POV main character, I doubt I would attempt writing one.
I suppose I would need to see one done very well, and then judge. I might love it. Hard to say. I very much enjoyed seeing Sixth Sense.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-03-27 08:05 pm (UTC)Unnamed mystery author is using a first person POV, and the main character is a young male detective. This character completely misjudges one of the "suspects". It turns out she is guilty, while he truly DID NOT believe she committed the murder and in fact he was close to falling for her.
And near the end of the book, when all has been laid bare, the author has the main character actually SAY to the "camera" (ie the readers), "gee, and here I was completely misled and fooled by her sweet nature, and that means YOU all were misled and fooled as well, because you were only seeing Suspect Girl as *I* saw her, and I was completely bamboozled."
Except... no. Numerous people who have read the book *immediately* recognized that this character was indeed the murderer, and lost all respect for the main character when he couldn't figure it out for himself. :-D In turn, they lost all respect for the author, because of the blatant insult to *their* intelligence in this character's summation of the situation ("I was fooled, you must have been too! Don't we feel stupid!"), and in the gimmicky nature of even having him say such a thing.
This, in the midst of a book that is widely praised for being "beautifully written" and has been greeted with much acclaim. The readers recognizing the murderer and getting irritated by Main Character's presumption of their gullibility, almost to a one also comment on the beauty of the writing. And none of them are going to buy another book by this author, or recommend said author's work to anyone.
So yes, tricky indeed. :) It was just so funny to have *just* been having this experience over the last two weeks, then to see this post on untrustworthy main characters in first person POV.
On the larger topic... from a reader's perspective, I don't know that I could or would appreciate the "craft" behind creating an untrustworthy main character who essentially lies to the reader. I can logically *recognize* the craft involved, but I think I'd get pissed off and stop trusting the author, even if she/he were careful to seed the elements of truth in there in other forms.
But then I'm a very character-driven reader. I do love untrustworthy characters, even/especially as main characters. But if they're lying to themselves and therefore essentially to me as the reader, I believe I would have a hard time not just feeling "tricked" by the author.
As a writer, due to my own gut reactions to the concept of reading a lying first person POV main character, I doubt I would attempt writing one.
I suppose I would need to see one done very well, and then judge. I might love it. Hard to say. I very much enjoyed seeing Sixth Sense.