From: John Peters <cf071>
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 13:06:07 -0500 (EST)

Friends: Like Nancy Werlin, I see some perils to the use of multiple voices as well as potential benefits. I have trouble keeping track of more than a certain number of narrators; however many there are in MEGABOY, I remember being able to keep them separate, but had to pause repeatedly for review while reading BULL RUN, and as for BAT 6, not to mention Mel Glenn's novels, woof---ended up sticking a postit on the cover and taking names. Worse than that though, with each narrative shift in the more populous books, I have to stop and think, "Is this a new person? No? Then which one is s/he...oh, right, the one who..."---see what's happening here? The mechanics of the storytelling are distracting this reader from the story itself. Does this happen to anyone else?

Of course, I also have a terrible memory for all of your names, so maybe that's the problem.


John Peters New York Public Library cf071 at freenet.buffalo.edu

*My esteemed institution asserts its right to differ*
Received on Sun 08 Nov 1998 12:06:07 PM CST