Strongly unreliable narrators

Jerry Friedman · 19 Apr 2011, 21:27 · from 2011-April.txt.gz

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com (Jerry Friedman)
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:27:24 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) Strongly unreliable narrators
In-Reply-To: <8de1bbbe3b9c672c565bdcf53977cd8a at imap.io.com>
References: <670616.28659.qm at web84103.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
	<8de1bbbe3b9c672c565bdcf53977cd8a at imap.io.com>
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> From: Adam Thornton (IO) <adam at io.com>
> On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:58:56 -0700 (PDT), DAVID STOCKHOFF
> <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:
> > Humbert Humbert?
...

He's?massively unreliable in Booth's sense of differing ?from the author's 
norms, but he does seem to knowingly let you know most of the facts.? Though 
some unreliable-narrator fans think Humbert invented the epiphany while 
listening to the children's voices, the murder of Quilty, and much of the rest 
of the book.

> Charles Kinbote, or perhaps, "Charles Kinbote", of course, as long as
> we're on Nabokov.

He's the first who came to my mind.

Also, Agatha Christie narrators who committed the murder, and the third-person 
narration in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge".

Three?where the question is whether they're reliable or not: the narrator of 
"The Tell-Tale Heart"; Horselover Fat, in VALIS, as I recall; and the governess 
in "The Turn of the Screw", a classic example.

Another definitely unreliable narrator:

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f
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K
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The narrator of the first third of Icehenge, and maybe the narrator of the 
second third--it's been a while.

Jerry Friedman

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