Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Six top novels with unreliable narrators

Catherine Steadman is an actress and author based in North London, UK. Her debut novel, Something in the Water, has become a New York Times bestseller published in thirty countries with film rights optioned by Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine. As an actress, she has appeared in leading roles on British and American television as well as on stage in the West End, where she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award. She grew up in New Forest, UK, and lives with a small dog and a fairly tall man.

Steadman's new novel in the U.S. is Mr. Nobody.

At The Week magazine she tagged six of her favorite books that feature unreliable narrators. One title on the list:
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (1996).

A social satire about the existentialist dread brought on by consumerist societal norms, Fight Club features a narrator whose life is without meaning until he meets two enigmatic strangers. If you still haven't read this, the twist is a corker.
Read about another entry on the list.

Fight Club is among Sarah Pinborough's top ten unreliable narrators, Richard Kadrey's top five books about awful, awful people, Chris Moss's top 19 books on how to be a man, E. Lockhart's seven favorite suspense novels, Joel Cunningham's top five books short enough to polish off in an afternoon, but deep enough to keep you thinking long into the night, Kathryn Williams's eight craziest unreliable narrators in fiction, Jessica Soffer's ten best book endings, Sebastian Beaumont's top ten books about psychological journeys, and Pauline Melville's top ten revolutionary tales.

--Marshal Zeringue