Why would a writer want to create an unreliable narrator? Perhaps out of the realisation that a god/goddess like view of the action of any story is difficult to achieve (see extracts from texts by Shukla and Wood in the following chapters) and because it’s a lot of fun messing with the reader’s mind and abusing their trust in a harmless, creative way. So-called ‘unreliable’ narrators can be instructive, too, demonstrating to a reader the multiplicity of human experience, the multiple ways in which events or people can be interpreted.

Exercise

Think back to a homecooked meal you had among a group of people — preferably an occasion when more than four people were gathered together. In a third person voice, write a description of preparations for the meal. Then in your own voice, describe eating the meal. Finally, adopting the voice of someone else present, describe the clearing up after the meal.