Just got back from California, a trip to Napa and Sonoma to celebrate my son Jordan turning 21. We had WAY too good of a time. Gorgeous weather, stunning scenery, fantastic food...and we sampled 102 wines in three days. Let me do the math for you. That's 34 wines a day. Granted, they were tastings, not full glasses, but once you multiply 34 times anything you get a friggin lot of wine.
Anyway, very fun trip. And the chance to see my son as not just my son but as also a friend/commrade/equal.
While out there, I read Bel Canto. I know, I know, I'm late getting to it but I wanted to read it for two reasons related to Ballroom. (Which is what I'm now calling the book which was previously cleverly titled Book Three.) First of all, Bel Canto involves a hostage situation, which is playing a part in the - and I use this term loosely - plot of Ballroom. Secondly, she uses a multiple third person point of view. I counted as many as eleven point of view characters until I got so overwhelmed that - somewhat like the wines - I simply stopped counting. She happily jumped from one POV character to another within the chapter and scene without space breaks or any structural clues. Someone in my writing group had warned me this would be hard to do but it seemed to work fine. As a reader I was never confused nor frustrated.
So I'm feeling that it's possible. Third person scares me a little. I'm more used to first person. But this book requires a lot of hopping around - a large part of the theme is that different things look different to different people. And there's no way to present this "fractured truth" theme without not only multiple POVs but also rapidly cycling POVs.
Wish me luck.
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Good luck! That sounds like a great trip.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Bel Canto fan, though Patchett's other stuff has never grabbed me quite as much. I really enjoyed and was moved by the first third or so of Truth & Beauty.
As for the POV stuff, I am such a big fan of Franzen's The Corrections, largely because the narration, which is always third-person, shifts around in the book in terms of tone, to each of the major characters. It's caustic and knowing and insightful; I just love that about it.