5 Best Books...with Multiple Narrators

Cassandra of Indie Reader Houston hosts a weekly meme called 5 Best Books where participants list what they feel are the five best books on a given topic. This week's topic is about books with multiple narrators. Hello Wilkie Collins. But before we get to him, the other four:

The fifth place winner may, in part, be on the list just because it is the most recent multiple-narrator book I've read: Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness. Three separate narrators take the reigns in this story, continuously alternating throughout. What gives this one an extra kick is that one of the narrators is an "enemy" of the protagonist. I really enjoyed reading about the events from an opposing perspective.

Coming in fourth, The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff includes multiple narrators, in part because there are two stories being told: one about Jordan a contemporary, and the other about Ann Eliza, one of Brigham Young's wives. Outside of these two quite distinct narrative voices, the story is also told through a variety of narrative forms with newspaper clippings, letters, historical documents, etc. included.

Toni Morrison's Beloved takes third place on my list. Probably the most complex narrative structure, Beloved is also the most confusing (hence the third place finish). The story is primarily told through third-person omniscient, but interspersed throughout the novel, various characters offer their perspective, taking over the narration.This, combined with the non-linear structure of the novel, definitely increases the mental aspect of reading, but trust me, it also increases the pleasure.

The runner up for best book with multiple narrators is Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. The main character, Sue, narrates parts one and three, and Maud narrates the middle portion of the book. Just like in The Moonstone, the split narration allows readers a greater insight into events, really adding depth to characterization and clarity to plot. Unlike The Moonstone, the narration was not such a huge part of my love of the novel in Fingersmith's case.

The absolute best book with multiple narrators EVER is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Eleven different characters take turns narrating the events, and each one is completely and utterly distinct from the next. Collins' ability to switch voices amazes me: diction, tone, sentence structure, everything about the prose adapts to the character narrating. And to top it all off, we are talking about some seriously unique characters here. Now go, go and read this if you haven't already. And for another Wilkie Collins' multiple-narrator book, read The Woman in White, which is also awesome.

I purposely left out epistolary novels as they are a different kind of "multiple narrator" in my  head, but novels such as Dracula and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are certainly worth looking at for multiple narrators.

So what books with multiple narrators do you think should make the list? Feel free to leave a link!

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