Most of the novel takes place over the course of a single night, which helps contain it, and the ending features a climax that brings everyone together in a shared purpose. The book reads a little like a stage play, a technique that makes it very clear who is speaking at every moment-essential when there are over 150 narrators. But most of the novel is told in the first-person voices of ghosts who complain and reminisce. Early chapters feature “found nonfiction,” that is, historical works spliced together, to set the scene for Willie’s death. Here are ten novels that used their unconventional structures to brilliant effect.Ī devastating novel about grief which revolves around the death of Abraham Lincoln’s son Willie shouldn’t be this hilarious, but it is set in a graveyard of chatty ghosts. You can create your own specifications to your advantage, but the story must still be deliverable-that is, comprehensible to the reader. What I learned is this: A novel is not airline luggage, there are no strict rules, no arbitrary size and weight regulations that you must contemptuously squeeze your story into.
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