How unreliable can a narrator be?

[Trick]

My MC is the narrator because it is a FP memoir style WIP. There comes a point where someone important to him is murdered and he finds their body. He does not have a clue who murdered them. He later goes to prison for five years and some time after escaping witnesses a murder that leaves the victim's body in much the same state as that of his loved one. His memory is not as perfect as he wants the reader to believe and there are differences he does not notice. He assumes that the murderer he sees in action is guilty of both crimes and pursues vengeance which is vital to the story. He, of course, is wrong and later finds out who his loved one's real killer was. He is writing all of this and clearly knows the truth as he does so and doesn't reveal it to the reader because it would ruin the book. This is my first attempt at memoir style so I'm not sure if the same rules apply about keeping secrets from the reader.

Since he didn't know at the time, is it ok not to reveal the truth until later? I think it is but I don't want inexperience or my own misunderstanding to take my awesome twist and cheapen it.

 

[Devor]

cThe whole idea of an unreliable narrator comes from a murder mystery story in which the narrator turns out to be the killer. And readers saw the scene in which the victim died, early on, from the killer's POV, with just a few details left out. Like how the narrator was stabbing him (or something).

So you can pull off a narrator that's pretty far off the mark, if you need to. Your case shouldn't be an issue, just do it well.

 

[Steerpike]

The book club read this month, Gone Girl, has two unreliable narrators who are telling the story. They certainly hold back information. You might take a look at that to get an idea.

 

[Trick]

Thank you. My remaining worry is that readers will feel tricked instead of surprised. Basically, through the evolution of my WIP I have discovered that I am writing about the wrong person doing the right thing for the wrong reasons and ending up a 'hero' even though he is far from deserving the title. If he seems to be doing the 'something' for the right reason and then you find out that's not the case, will that aggravate readers? He still does the same 'right thing' in the end but has no justification, especially in his own mind.

 

[Terry Greer]

Loss of memory is a good way of giving an unreliable narration credability.
There have been some cracking examples in fiction such as:

Perhaps from a previous night's drinking spree.
Purposefully wiped memory (I remember a very funny Red Dwarf episode about this)
Congential loss of memory (as in the film Memento)
Hypnotism (to suppress a memory)

I think that as long as there is a reason for the inaccuracies (or a few real points are remembered - but initially don't seem to fit) then there's something for the reader to hold onto.
The more I think about it the more Momento is a superb example of this.

 

[stephenspower]

Wikipedia has a great entry on unreliable narrators: Unreliable narrator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Trick]

Loss of memory is a good way of giving an unreliable narration credability.
There have been some cracking examples in fiction such as:

Perhaps from a previous night's drinking spree.
Purposefully wiped memory (I remember a very funny Red Dwarf episode about this)
Congential loss of memory (as in the film Memento)
Hypnotism (to suppress a memory)

I think that as long as there is a reason for the inaccuracies (or a few real points are remembered - but initially don't seem to fit) then there's something for the reader to hold onto.
The more I think about it the more Momento is a superb example of this.

The problem is that my WIP ends with the narrator/MC revealing who really killed his loved one and he exacts vengeance on them. His mistaken 'vengeance' on the innocent party (innocent in the case of this particular murder only) is the climax of the book because it's the main antagonist.

 

[Penpilot]

Another way you could handle the hiding of information by the narrator is maybe not to have an unreliable narrator and just have a narrator that's telling the story and admits to the reader that they're holding something back. The narrator could say stuff like, "There he was, the murderer in front of me. I'd learn many things about him as I stalked him, some of it good, some of it bad, and a lot of it unfortunate. But I'll get to the details of some of those things later."

 

[Devor]

The problem is that my WIP ends with the narrator/MC revealing who really killed his loved one and he exacts vengeance on them. His mistaken 'vengeance' on the innocent party (innocent in the case of this particular murder only) is the climax of the book because it's the main antagonist.

When you put it that way, I definitely see the risk of readers feeling cheated. Or that it's a sudden, unnecessary twist. Whether it works is going to come down to a very delicate execution. You have to leave enough hints, enough loose ends, to make the first climax feel satisfying, yet still incomplete. And hopefully that satisfaction will turn into horror as the reader realizes what's happened.

Maybe the easiest way to manage reader expectations is to consider how much of the book is left after that "climax." If it happens, say, at the 70% mark, then the reader should be expecting more to happen. And you have more pages to explore the consequences. If it happens at the 90% mark, you've got very little space to cover the aftermath of the first climax, the setup of the second, and the final kill. You might be more at risk of rushing it and leaving readers feeling unsatisfied.

 

[wordwalker]

It sounds like a full "unreliable narrator" is an extreme way to write this, and it probably produces five cheats for every Gone Girl-type story that gets away with it.

Really, the OP isn't about that at all. It seems more like it's about leaping to conclusions, about the MC seeing the main three clues on the murder scene and barely looking at the other two that (if he'd been thorough and accurate) could have made him more cautious. So all you have to do is capture how shocked and furious he is about the obvious, and catch the reader up in that; they'll love to come along for that ride. You can drop the smallest hint about the other signs (like mentioning a fact that, if readers look back, will see doesn't match the other crime -- or let someone else ask him if he's checked everything), but as long as the momentum is always forward, the character can keep avenging until he slams into a reason he'll notice.

 

[Trick]

Maybe the easiest way to manage reader expectations is to consider how much of the book is left after that "climax." If it happens, say, at the 70% mark, then the reader should be expecting more to happen. And you have more pages to explore the consequences. If it happens at the 90% mark, you've got very little space to cover the aftermath of the first climax, the setup of the second, and the final kill. You might be more at risk of rushing it and leaving readers feeling unsatisfied.

It was going to happen closer to the end but you have given me something to reconsider...

Really, the OP isn't about that at all. It seems more like it's about leaping to conclusions, about the MC seeing the main three clues on the murder scene and barely looking at the other two that (if he'd been thorough and accurate) could have made him more cautious. So all you have to do is capture how shocked and furious he is about the obvious, and catch the reader up in that; they'll love to come along for that ride. You can drop the smallest hint about the other signs (like mentioning a fact that, if readers look back, will see doesn't match the other crime -- or let someone else ask him if he's checked everything), but as long as the momentum is always forward, the character can keep avenging until he slams into a reason he'll notice.

This should be doable since my MC almost never controls his impulses. He also get's very little chance to investigate the first murder scene because one victim is only psychologically harmed and he has to get them away from the terrible aftermath.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

If he's writing his memoires after the events and knows the truth but is telling things as they were then then I don't see a problem with it. Because he's telling the truth as he believed it to be at the time. The only thing I would say so that you don't end up with the reader feeling cheated, is to throw in a few lines here and there to point out that he was wrong. Thow-away lines like "If only 'd known then what I do now." They don't have to be specific, just give the reader enough to know that everything is not quite as it seems.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Trick]

Hi,

If he's writing his memoires after the events and knows the truth but is telling things as they were then then I don't see a problem with it. Because he's telling the truth as he believed it to be at the time. The only thing I would say so that you don't end up with the reader feeling cheated, is to throw in a few lines here and there to point out that he was wrong. Thow-away lines like "If only 'd known then what I do now." They don't have to be specific, just give the reader enough to know that everything is not quite as it seems.

Cheers, Greg.

Sort of like the 'He knew he would die" technique. A character 'knows' they'll die or whatever else and yet it doesn't happen, effectively making the reader think it will, as strongly as the character does, and then, seemingly, surprising both. It can be done very cheaply but it has been pulled off.

Anyone have a better example of this than my rambling thoughts?

 

[Nihilium 7th]

Depending on the type of story it make for a continuously layered story. Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" series had an infamously untrustworthy narrator due to his hinted insanity and laziness.

 

[Trick]

Depending on the type of story it make for a continuously layered story. Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" series had an infamously untrustworthy narrator due to his hinted insanity and laziness.

The similarities between my book and is were just made clear to me the other day (not the skill yet, but maybe one day, if I wish really hard...)

Luckily for me I'd never heard of them and just started reading them right after that. Liking them so far.