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Tag: Unreliable narrator

  • Gone Girl

    Nick and Amy Dunne were once a glamorous New York couple, both writers, until the recession cost them their jobs and they moved to Nick's small hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, to care for his ailing mother. On the morning of their fifth anniversary, Amy disappears, leaving signs of a struggle in their living room.

    The story alternates between Nick's account of the investigation and entries from Amy's diary charting their courtship and marriage. Police and media attention soon turn on Nick, whose awkward behaviour and evasions make him look guilty. As each narrator reveals more, the reader is forced to keep revising what they believe about both of them and about the marriage itself.

    Flynn's novel is a sharp dissection of marriage, media frenzy and the roles people perform for each other, including the much-quoted idea of the effortlessly agreeable 'cool girl'. Its unreliable narration made it a publishing phenomenon and a model for a wave of domestic thrillers. David Fincher's 2014 film, with a screenplay by Flynn, was a major success.

    Book details

    AuthorGillian Flynn
    First published2012
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreThriller
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)422
    SettingNorth Carthage, Missouri, and New York City, around 2012

    Themes

    • Marriage
    • Deception
    • Media sensationalism
    • Identity performance
    • Gender roles

    Who should read it

    Readers who enjoy dark psychological suspense and unreliable narrators.

  • The Remains of the Day

    Stevens has served as butler at Darlington Hall for more than thirty years. The house now belongs to a genial American, Mr Farraday, who lends him a car for a few days off. Stevens sets out for the West Country, ostensibly to persuade the former housekeeper, Miss Kenton, to return to work, and along the way he reminisces about his years under Lord Darlington.

    His memories centre on the interwar period, when Darlington hosted unofficial conferences of diplomats and politicians and drifted into sympathy with appeasement of Nazi Germany. Stevens recalls these events through the lens of professional duty and his ideal of dignity, and in doing so he skirts his relationship with Miss Kenton, whose warmth he repeatedly deflected.

    Ishiguro's achievement is the narrating voice: formal, self-justifying and quietly evasive, so the reader learns what Stevens cannot admit. The novel examines loyalty, emotional repression and the cost of devoting a life to someone else's judgment. It won the Booker Prize in 1989 and became an acclaimed film with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.

    Book details

    AuthorKazuo Ishiguro
    First published1989
    Original languageEnglish
    GenreLiterary fiction
    TypeFiction
    Pages (approx.)245
    SettingDarlington Hall and the English West Country, July 1956, with memories of the 1920s-30s
    AwardsBooker Prize 1989

    Themes

    • Duty
    • Emotional repression
    • Regret
    • Dignity
    • Self-deception

    Who should read it

    Readers who appreciate subtle, restrained novels where what is left unsaid matters most.