Tuesday, October 30, 2007

We, We, We

Yesterday I finished the National Book Award-nominated Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. The gimmick here is that the novel is told from the first person plural. The novel opens with an excellent, hilarious section and I found myself wondering if he could keep that up for the duration. With the exception of a straightforward, third person section in the middle, he does. And he does it well. Ferris manages to allow certain characters that are part of the "we" to stand out and develop without losing the feel of the storytelling situation he has set up. It's quite a feat.

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