Writing a novel in first-person plural can’t be easy, but when an author nails it – like Jeffrey Eugenides did with The Virgin Suicides – it sticks with you. This narrative technique isn’t the “royal we” or a Greek chorus, but a collective voice that observes and is also part of the story.
Next to Virgin Suicides, my favorite novel using this narrative style is Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to the End (2007), set in a Chicago ad agency. Here’s how it starts:
“We were fractious and overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise. At least those of us who smoked had something to look forward to at ten-fifteen. Most of us liked most everyone, a few of us hated specific individuals, one or two people loved everyone and everything. Those who loved everyone were unanimously reviled. We loved free bagels in the morning.”
I feared this would quickly grow tiresome (although I perked up about bagels), but soon the first-person plural slipped out of my consciousness; I was wrapped up in the story and with each nameless person in the collective voice. Ferris gradually lets us know the characters in the office without losing the strength of the narration. Trust me, it works.
First-person plurals don’t seem to be frequently published — until last year. In 2011 I read five novels written in the “we,” which doesn’t exactly make it a trend but was definitely notable to me.
Hannah Pittard’s The Fates Will Find Their Way rose to the top of last year’s first person plural novels for me. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown is another fine novel, this one written in the collective voice of three sisters. The voice is strong, much like a sibling relationship, and we see the sisters’ commonalities as well as their distinct personalities. A collective voice also works well in Julie Otsuka’s beautiful The Buddha in the Attic, the story of six “picture brides” who come to the U.S. from Japan in the early 20th century. But when Laura Lippman (who is one of my favorite mystery authors) wrote chapters in first-person plural in The Most Dangerous Thing, I was sadly disappointed and almost couldn’t bear to finish the book. It added nothing to the story for me and seemed like it was done more for writerly enjoyment than for the reader’s experience. Even worse is when the writing is condescending or cloying — or sounds like a copywriter from Groupon is at the helm.
I don’t purposely seek fiction written in first-person plural, but it’s such a treat when done well. And when it isn’t done well … it’s dreadful.
Take a look at this Fiction written in the first-person plural booklist. If you have suggestions to add to the list, please comment below.
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