(no subject)

[craftyhobbit]

I'm not really a fan of first person narrative, particularly when the book has a contemporary setting. Mainly because I find that the author ends up imposing their opinions, likes, dislikes, politics, etc, too much on to the reader and it can get a bit grating when they assume that the reader is the same as them. It becomes a cliché, or at the very least gives the impression that everyone is a Hyacinth Bucket, at least in terms of sameness, or with what is popular among the culture at the time. There is a tendency for the first person narrative to be more unique among historical or fantasy settings because the surroundings is different, and as a result, the writing has more of a distinct voice, but even so it is not my favourite kind of narrative, and it only seems to work when the reader can identify strongly with the character. It doesn't work at all in audio books that have more than one character using the first person narrative unless there is a clear distinction between which perspective we are being shown and that is the case with the current book I'm listening to as the characters blend together into one. It needs to become less of a trend in books and I've found that over the years I enjoyed reading much more when first person narrative was a rarer occurance.