You just cannot trust some people. This even includes fictional people. If anyone should be able to be trusted, it seems it should be the narrator telling us the stories we enjoy most. But noooo. This is not always the case. Unreliable narration has seen to that.
Allow me to confess: I love it! I adore books with narrators who insert too many of their personal feelings, ideas, and opinions into the plot. It’s even better when the narrator’s mental stability (or lack thereof) comes into play. If you enjoy unreliable narration as well, here is a list of some works with unreliable narrators that you can find at Salina Public Library.
One would think a doctor, of all people, could be trusted. Take, for example, Dr. Faraday, the narrator of Sarah Waters’s book The Little Stranger. Dr. Faraday is an early twentieth-century small-town doctor, who goes on a housecall to the home of the Ayers family. The family used to be financially well-to-do. However, World War I left them with a falling-apart house, physically and mentally-injured family members, and only one servant, Betty, who is the reason for Dr. Faraday’s housecall. Dr. Faraday comes to care about the family and their home, especially when strange occurrences begin. Just how accurate is the good doctor Faraday in his understanding of these events? Why not check out The Little Stranger and see what you think?
My younger son talked me into reading House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It is one of his favorite books. House of Leaves does have an interesting unreliable narrator. In fact, the story that unfolds is told by three different people – one of whom I would call the protagonist himself, Johnny Truant, a drug-addicted tattoo artist who becomes obsessed with what are referred to as The Navidson Records. This brings us to the second narrative – a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who lives in a house that has the habit of – well – expanding. Physically. The third is the recently-deceased Zampanó, whose research is the reason for Johnny Truant’s obsession. Maybe check it out and see which narrator you think is most unreliable.
Donna Tartt is my favorite contemporary author. Her exquisite storytelling and compelling characters are why. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch is a perfect example of her writing talents.
The Goldfinch is written from the perspective of the protagonist, Theodore Decker. When Theo is thirteen years old, his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Theo survived the tragedy. Before being rescued, he is given, by a mysterious man, the painting The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, which was his mother’s favorite.
His life after is filled with ups and downs that include staying with his wealthy friends, living with his not-so-upright father, and meeting even-less-upright criminals. Some parts are quite unbelievable. The reader wonders how accurate is Theo’s perspective. Many have compared the events in Theo’s life to our next book that features an unreliable narrator – Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield.
I am a lover of classic literature. I would say classics and nonfiction are my favorite types of books. That said, Charles Dickens has never been a big favorite of mine. That changed when I read David Copperfield. There is a rawness to this work that I have not seen in his others.
David Copperfield has been called Dickens’s semi-autobiographical novel. Dickens experienced trauma in his childhood when he was forced to work in a boot blacking factory upon his parents being sent to debtor’s prison. David Copperfield begins at David’s birth and progresses through a series of harrowing events to its powerful ending. Because the work is written from the perspective of its protagonist, who is looking back at his life and all the people involved in it, it is questionable how reliable David’s memory is. Dickens was always on the side of the poor and downtrodden of his time. He became quite the advocate for the poor through his writing. Therefore, even if the narrator in David Copperfield is a bit unreliable, it makes many important points.
Since we are on a David Copperfield theme, I might as well throw in Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Whereas The Goldfinch is compared to David Copperfield, there is no getting around the fact that Demon Copperhead is a present-day retelling – one for which the author won a Pulitzer Prize in 2023. Like David Copperfield, Demon Copperhead contains unreliable, first-person narration. Like David, Demon faces many ups and downs throughout his life. Unlike David Copperfield, which focuses on the protagonist growing up in a nineteenth-century industrial society, Demon Copperhead focuses on issues such as the opioid epidemic in today’s world.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Charlie just experienced his first day of high school. Things are not going well, until he meets a group of friends who are also not likely to fit in with the rest of the students. All seems fantastic as these new friends and Charlie bond over music and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yes, things are great – until they’re not. The ensuing not-so-great times lead Charlie to depression. Depression leads to new and heartbreaking discoveries. And the entire story is told from Charlie’s – shall we say? – broken perspective. I recommend checking out The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky to see Charlie’s views as he begins healing from his life.
What can I say about Holden Caulfield, the unreliable narrator of the classic The Catcher in the Rye? Holden is one of those protagonists you either love or hate. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground for readers’ opinions of him. The Catcher in the Rye is Caulfield’s tale of a weekend that took place just before the Christmas holiday. It details his expulsion from boarding school, arguments with a friend, a train ride to New York, events at the Edmond Hotel, and fantasies about saving children from falling off a cliff. Holden Caulfield is the ultimate unreliable narrator because of his partial retelling of events, such as the death of his brother, which must have left Holden with repressed emotions. I must warn you, Holden Caulfield is often accused of being judgemental, biased, and a bit of a hypocrite. Perhaps this is why the novel is so long-lasting.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
When I was child, Alcie’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll scared me. That scene with the pepper and the sneezing baby and – oh, yes – the pig was just too much for my mind. As an adult who now teaches a class over the work, I can see the value of it. (I am always sure to ask my students how they felt reading the book. Did they find it funny, confusing, scary?). There are many theories about hidden meanings in this classic children’s tale. My theory is it is all about Alice growing up – and the confusion that comes along with it. Going with that theory, just how reliable could the narrator be? Who really understands what growing up means while they are in the midst of it? (Who understands what being a grown up means even when we have been there for years? But that’s a different blog post). What is unique about the unreliable narration of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is it is told in a third-person point of view. However, Carroll was able to put himself in the mind of Alice and keep back any adult understanding of what was really happening. Maybe that’s part of its genius. Why not pick up Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and see how your opinion as an adult may vary from what you thought of it as a child?
At least the narrator of Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney is honest about her dishonesty. But it is understandable why the protagonist, Amber Reynolds, may be confused. She is in a coma, after all. What is particularly frustrating for Amber is she cannot communicate, but she can think, and she is trying to figure out just why she is in a coma. She has her suspicions. As she pieces together conversations that occur in her hospital room and her own memories, she believes she has found out the truth. But did she? Only readers of Sometimes I Lie will know, and we have it right here at the library, just waiting for you to discover the truth.
Perhaps one of the most disliked unreliable narrators in the history of literature is Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. There are different theories about why Nabokov wrote Lolita. Some say he wrote it because of his own childhood experience with an abusive relative. Others say he wrote it just to show a disturbing subject matter could be written about in beautiful prose. Whatever his reason, Lolita, with the unreliable narration of Humbert Humbert himself, has become one of the most well-known (and sometimes loved and sometimes hated) novels. If you have never read Lolita and want to see just why this book is so controversial, come to Salina Public library. We have it here.
Here’s another doctor. Dr. Anna Fox suffers from agoraphobia because of a horrible accident she had. On top of that, she has separated from her husband and only talks to her nine-year old daughter on the telephone. She may be a bit bored, being secluded alone in her house. Perhaps this is why she begins watching her new neighbors, the Russells. However, it may be a good thing she is a nosey neighbor. While spying, she sees Jane brutally murdered. The only problem is the police do not believe her. She must prove she knows what she saw. Or does she? Just how reliable is Anna’s story – and her narration in The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn? I recommend you pick it up from the library and find out!
I confess I have to slip this one in because it’s my favorite novel of all times – The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Readers may not pick up on the unreliable narration if they skip the very first chapter – “The Custom House.” “The Custom House” reveals the background of our narrator (which is pretty similar to the background of Nathaniel Hawthorne himself). According to the narrator of The Scarlet Letter, he found long-lost documents that discuss the protagonist of the novel, Hester Prynne, and her dilemmas. This narrator cannot help but tell the story he has learned. Of course, the fact that the narrator bases the story off his interpretation of these primary sources leads to the theory of unreliable narration.
However – and this is my favorite part – just how reliable was Hawthorne himself? The Scarlet Letter is obviously historical fiction – a novel about the 1600s written by a nineteenth-century author. However, Hawthorne had his reasons for being just a bit slanted in this masterpiece. He sought much of his life to distance himself from his Puritan ancestors because his great-great grandfather, John Hathorne, was the only non-repentant judge in the Salem Witch Trials. (Notice how Hawthorne’s name is not Hathorne like his relative’s. That’s because he changed the spelling to distance himself from his cruel past). As laudable as Hawthorne’s actions were, knowing his justified anger, just how accurate was his portrayal of the legalistic and often cruel Puritans in The Scarlet Letter? You be the judge. I wholeheartedly recommend reading (or re-reading).
Unreliable narration can add a layer of intrigue to our favorite works of literature. It can also add to our psychological understanding of why the characters (and the narrators) behave as they do. Come to the Salina Public Library and check out these and other works with unreliable narrators.
About The Author: Kandy
Kandy works in the Circulation Department at Salina Public Library. She holds two bachelor's degrees in religion and education and three master's degrees in human services counseling with a cognate in Christian ministries, history, and professional writing - all from Liberty University. In her free time, she enjoys fiction and nonfiction writing, reading, researching her favorite historical, sociological, psychological, and theological topics, conducting Bible studies, and visiting her favorite historical sites and museums. Her favorite things at the library are books and writing events.
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