Alternating Narrators

This week’s topic is “Alternating Narrators”.  Multiple narrators may discuss one event, tell a single story from different viewpoints or there may be multiple stories and perspectives that intertwine.  I think this particular format has multiple benefits for both authors and readers alike.  I think the benefit for authors is that they have a chance to fully develop more characters and keep the pace of the book quick and events fresh.  In my mind, characters are only fully realized when we as readers get to ‘hear’ their thoughts and ‘feel’ their emotions from a first person perspective.  Also telling the entirety of a story from the perspective of one character sometimes runs the risk of losing reader interest and leaving the story in a rut.  I believe teens like the multiple perspective format due to one of the primary reasons given in Melanie Koss’ article “Young Adult Novels with Multiple Narrative Perspectives” - the changing nature and use of technology.  As the author points out much communication between teens today occurs over multiple formats (texting, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter etc) and information is often received in multiple piece that must be pieced together into a coherent whole (anyone who has experienced  a teen chat room can relate).  Just to give one example of this – I caught my teenaged cousin yesterday using a phone to talk with one friend about an article he was reading while typing in a chat room and sending twitters to another friend about the same.  Teens are so use to shifting between multiple voices and putting them together that novels written in this format feel the closest to their everyday reality and thus more familiar.  I’ll be discussing two YA novels that fit within this category: Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

 

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares

 

This story revolves around the romance between Dash and Lily – two New York teenagers with very different backgrounds.  Lily is the youngest in her very large and protective family and has been living in their shadow her entire life.  Her brother attempts to break her out of this mold and experience more life by placing a red notebook full of dares in a local bookstore with the attention of attracting a suitable boyfriend for Lily.  It is discovered by Dash who, while possessing a much more cynical and jaded view of the world than Lily (due to his troubled childhood and broken home life) is intrigued and begins to correspond with Lily through the journal.  Thus begins a strange and sometime comic romance in which each discover more about the other and themselves and have their lives completely changed in the process.

I found this story very easy to follow.  Books with multiple narrators often fall into the trap labeled “too much of a good thing”.  The authors of these works seem to believe that the more narrators they have the better their book is but this all too often devolves into an incoherent mess.  This novel avoids that problem by limiting the narrators to Dash and Lily.  The contrast between the cynical Dash and bubbly Lily’s take on events was refreshing in that it allowed me to see how too people from fundamentally different backgrounds saw the world.  For example, Lily sees Christmas as a joyous celebration of family ties and giving while Dash sees the same holiday as an empty celebration of mindless consumerism.

Though there were only two narrators, the story switched back and forth between Lily and Dash often enough that it remain fresh and read at a comfortably quick pace.  The only thing that slowed the story down were the frequent journal entries ‘written’ by Dash and Lily.  However, the journal entries did provide interesting ‘peeks’ into the inner workings of each character’s mind.  I only have one criticism of this book and that is the length.  Quick pace or no I think the authors dragged out the story just a little too much by including some (in my mind) unnecessary background such as the escapades of Lily’s grandfather who spent much of the story driving back and forth between New York and his lady friend in Florida.

 

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

 

This tale is and interesting foray into the world of homosexuality, friendship and teenage angst.  Will Grayson (referred to hereafter as Will 1) is a sentimental and weak teen who avoids committing to anything as this (in his mind) invariably leads to disaster.  The other Will Grayson (hereafter referred to as Will 2) is an angst ridden teen who struggles with his homosexual identity and belief that caring about anyone leads to disaster and that he is not worthy of love.  Will 1’s and Will 2’s lives intersect through a chance encounter at a porn shop and nothing is ever the same again.  Through their mutual association with flamboyant homosexual Tiny Cooper and his equally flamboyant musical play, they take short but sure steps towards realizing their own self-worth and the worth of a loving relationship – wether that be friendship or something more.

I think this story is one of the best examples out there in regards to the power of multiple narrators.  I was able to ‘see’ the issues of homosexuality and friendship through two very different pairs of eyes: the straight Will 1 and the gay Will 2.  Being straight myself I naturally emphasized with Will 1 more but also felt a connection with Will 2 as the authors’ did such an excellent job of presenting their message that gay teen experience the same issues as other teens through the medium of this character.  Both Wills struggled to find themselves and realize the strength of personal relationships just like teens everywhere.  I was at no point in the story confused over who was speaking or whose views were being expressed – another indicator of a good multiple narrator novel.  I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to experience the issue of homosexuality and friendships from multiple angles.