From: Nancy Werlin <nwerlin>
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 09:31:33 -0500

Thus far on this list we've dwelled mainly on the benefits of using multiple points of view (and there are many). I wonder, however, if we can also look at what is lost, and what is risked.

The main thing you risk, is seems to me, is depth. In fact, I would suggest that the more point-of-view characters you add to a book (i.e., the more breadth), the less likely it is that some or all of these characters will come across as having any depth. Moreover, in order to individuate in little space, the author may well stray into leaning on stereotyping. In some of the books we've discussed here, I've felt this to be the case. (Whether or not this may yet work, in the context of an individual book, is a separate question.)

What you certainly do lose is the time-proven delight of the regular story-path, and the deep pleasure of identification/empathy with a particular individual. Of course, when a multi-voiced novel is successful, these pleasures are exchanged for others. But the power of the standard story-path is very, very, strong; it is linked into the subconscious of all those who read regularly, and, in giving it up, well, much is relinquished. And I have never yet encountered a multi-voice novel that completely succeeded (for me) in fully compensating for that primal power.

Which is not to say, of course, that I think no one should work this way. I'm glad indeed that some authors do; it stretches the mind and the heart in different ways. But I would be curious to hear others' thoughts on the risks taken by multi-voiced novels, as well as on their matching compensations.

-Nancy
Received on Sun 08 Nov 1998 08:31:33 AM CST