Anyone ever read a novel like this?

RGame · Dec 26, 2005

I was thinking of a trying to write a novel that was actually a group of stories about one character that takes place over the course of his entire lifetime, with each story being separated by five to ten years or so.

I'm sure someone has thought of this before. Can anyone recommend a novel structured like that?

blacbird · Dec 26, 2005

I can't immediately think of one, but the question seems to me irrelevant. So what if there are other novels using a similar device? What difference does that make for yours? Form should grow organically out of function. If you have a story to tell, and its telling requires the structure you mention, go tell it. Its success or failure will rest on how well you do it, regardless of the specific form it takes.

caw.

maestrowork · Dec 26, 2005

Big Fish is structured kind of like that...

RGame · Dec 26, 2005

blacbird said:
So what if there are other novels using a similar device? What difference does that make for yours?

Seems natural that if you get an idea you like, you'd see what else is out there like it. Seems like a type of novel I might be interested in writing, but I'd definitely be interested in reading.

Maestro, yeah, you're right. It's kind of like that, although it's pretty loose on timelines. I read that one a year or two ago. Maybe that's what gave me the idea and I didn't know it.

TwentyFour · Dec 26, 2005

The Forest Gump novel is like that I think? I don't really remember it that much.

September skies · Dec 26, 2005

I guess several novels could be broken down that way, small stories instead of chapters - I don't know of any specifically but John Irving's The World According to Garp kind of comes to mind. It follows his story (before conceivement) through childhood - preteen - teenager - adult.....

citymouse · Dec 26, 2005

RGame said:
I was thinking of a trying to write a novel that was actually a group of stories about one character that takes place over the course of his entire lifetime, with each story being separated by five to ten years or so.

RGame said:
I'm sure someone has thought of this before. Can anyone recommend a novel structured like that?

RG, Actually I have two novels published in a series that is exactly as you describe. The main character, Jan Phillips, is 18 at the beginning of the first novel and 29 by the last chapter. The sequel picks up about two years later while the third in the series (yet to be published) picks up when he is in his mid thirties. I intend to take the whole up to and including his death--assuming my readers will let him go.

Michael Halfhill author of Bought and Paid For & Scimitar
www.michaelhalfhill.com

Old Hack · Dec 27, 2005

I think Martin Amis wrote "Time's Arrow", which does pretty much as you describe but in reverse, ending with the birth of the main character.

Flapdoodle · Dec 27, 2005

September skies said:
I guess several novels could be broken down that way, small stories instead of chapters - I don't know of any specifically but John Irving's The World According to Garp kind of comes to mind. It follows his story (before conceivement) through childhood - preteen - teenager - adult.....

Also his excellent Hotel New Hampshire is set over a long period of time.

Birol · Dec 27, 2005

Hemingway's Nick Adams stories.

Celia Cyanide · Dec 27, 2005

RGame said:
I was thinking of a trying to write a novel that was actually a group of stories about one character that takes place over the course of his entire lifetime, with each story being separated by five to ten years or so.

I'm sure someone has thought of this before. Can anyone recommend a novel structured like that?

I think Trainspotting is something between a novel and a collection of short stories. It does not take place over Renton's whole life, but it would give you an idea of how the stories work as individual stories, and come together to create a whole.

SC Harrison · Dec 27, 2005

Some of Robert Penn Warren's work is similar to what you are talking about. World Enough and Time spanned several decades if I'm not mistaken, and the Snopes stuff also, but I think they were released as short stories originally.

WVWriterGirl · Dec 27, 2005

My newest novel that I"m working on is like that (although I hadn't thought about it). I'm using each of the slices of his life as a "chapter" with sub-chapters within. My first chapter is "Age Fourteen", my second chapter is "Age Twenty-Two", and my third chapter is "Age Thirty-One". It is a fantasy, and deals with the consequences of not taking advice that was given at age fourteen.

WerenCole · Dec 27, 2005

It seems that I have seen things similar, though recently I have been seeing it on a shorter scale, for instance the Shapiro family of Michael Chabon's A Model World follows the characters loosely for about six years I think. My own book of short stories is also based upon the life of one character but in a slightly different manner.

-W

Torgo · Dec 28, 2005

Charlie Stross' recent (and excellent) SF novel/story cycle Accelerando follows one character in exactly this way. The book's available free from www.accelerando.org if you don't mind reading it off a screen.

BlueTexas · Dec 29, 2005

Hearts in Atlantis by King does this after a fashion.

Spookster · Dec 29, 2005

Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz is another one. I'm currently reading it and it's pretty interesting. He wrote the story as a "memoir" of sorts, over a ten year span with five major events occuring in the character's life, and broke each major event into a part.

sassandgroove · Dec 29, 2005

My Husband is reading Howard's Conan stories, and from what I understand, they are just a collection of stories...

But what does that matter, write your book first, let the publisher catagorize it.

Anyone ever read a novel like this?

RGame

Some guy

blacbird

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

RGame

Some guy

TwentyFour

practical experience, FTW

September skies

cloud watching

citymouse

fantasy dweller

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Flapdoodle

Birol

Around and About

Celia Cyanide

Joker Groupie

SC Harrison

Dances With Hamsters

WVWriterGirl

Inked Mom

WerenCole

Funny what? Do I amuse you?

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

BlueTexas

Back from self-exile land.

Spookster

Maiden of the Blade

sassandgroove

Sassy haircut