Anyway, I'm glad I didn't choose the first chapter to talk about narration because it's pulled the old switcheroo on me. Last chapter was narrated in third-person omniscient and set in the middle of the Vietnam War, and this chapter zoomed forward a considerable amount of time and is narrated by a mystery character who refers to himself as "me" and "I," which means... first-person. Therefore... I don't know who this guy is, but the story may or may not be told from his point of view from here on out.
On a different note, "And do me a favor. Don't mention anything about--" (p. 29) is supposed to build suspense. It's not totally ineffective; if I was reading this book out of a desire to read about the Vietnam War, I'd probably be on the edge of my proverbial seat right now.
Edit 08/13/10 5:02 PM: I've read the whole book, and I still don't know what Jimmy Cross didn't want O'Brien to mention. I guess that means he didn't mention it?
....or maybe he did mention it and lied when he said he wouldn't!
ReplyDeleteI guess that's also possible =\. In that case, this would be another example of O'Brien caring more about the quality of his writing than the quality of his personal relationships, methinks....
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