Can anyone recommend a novel where this was done successfully (ie, first person pov for the MC, and third person pov for other characters)?
Novels with mixed POV--first and third
- Thread starter Julie Worth
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Bonnie Hearn Hill's "Intern" did it I beleive. She had some unusual POV treatments throughout the novel.
In the mystery/thriller genre there are quite a few of these mixed POV's -- done successfully. The most recent James Lee Burke and Jonathan Kellerman, for example, who have first person main characters and who follow other main characters in third.
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Diana Gabaldon does this throughout her Outlander series, beginning with book 2 (Dragonfly in Amber with MC's first person (Claire) and one third person (Jamie)). By book 4 (Drums of Autumn) she still has MC's first person (Claire) but has added up to three separate third person POVs (Jamie, Brianna and Roger).
Mixed 1st/3rd: Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion. Bump by Diana Wagman. Joyce Carol Oates, Roddy Doyle, Tom Robbins, and Cory Doctorow have all done this as well if memory serves.
It can be a bit tricky, as the first-person viewpoint can leave the others seeming a bit distant...
It can be a bit tricky, as the first-person viewpoint can leave the others seeming a bit distant...
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Widdershins by Charles de Lint (and possibly others by him) writes from multiple POV's, more than one in first person. It's not for nothing each chapter is titled with the name of the person whose point of view it is written in. There is no head-hopping whatsoever within chapters.
JBI
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In this postmodernist age of literature, the more obscurely something is written, the better. Many writers blend multiple forms, including letters, poems, script, and different point of views. The best example is probably James Joyce's Ulysses, or the somewhat more recent Gravity's Rainbow By Pynchon.
Actually, James Patterson does this pretty well in his Cross novels. He might have a lot of other writing issues, but the POV stuff is done well.
That's right on the money. My WIP grew from 40 chapters to 140 over the weekend after I Pattersonized it. I'd already changed the MC's POV to first, and that left me several chapters with mixed POV. I wasn't comfortable with that so I broke them up, but then I had a scattering of really short chapters amongst regular sized ones, and I decided, heck, why not break up the entire book? Now it seems so...sophisticated.
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Not read it in a while but I seem to remember Christine by Stephen King goes from 1st to 3rd and back again.
Jonathan Stroud does it well in the Bartimaeus Trilogy (although that's YA fiction, rather than adult fiction).
MM
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If memory serves, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is written in multiple first POVs and at least the first chapter (might have been a prologue) is in distant 3rd.
I love it when this question pops up, because I get to recommend one of my favourite books 
Feersum Endjinn by Iain Banks has four points of view, three in third, and one in first (just noticed the symmetry there - wonder if it was deliberate?).
Feersum Endjinn by Iain Banks has four points of view, three in third, and one in first (just noticed the symmetry there - wonder if it was deliberate?).
Some of Harlen Coben's more recent books (not the Myron Bolitar books as far as I know) switch and they rock! Very readable.
Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey SF trilogy uses 1st and 3rd throughout, although it doesn't switch by chapter; there's a mix (clearly shown) of both in the chapters.
The novels are:
Hammered
Scardown
Worldwired
FWIW.
~Nancy
The novels are:
Hammered
Scardown
Worldwired
FWIW.
~Nancy
I looked at Hammered on Amazon, and there was a one star review where the reader complained about the handling of POV--not only the number of them, but how they were announced with a "Date/Location/Time header." The mixed POV issue might have entered into her reaction (at least on a subconscious level), but she didn't specifically mention it. Anyway, that book might be worth studying as a negative example.
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