Novels that flip flop?

KTC · Jan 28, 2008

Hey all,

Part II in my meltdown.

Could you please suggest to me some novels that go from past to present. I know I probably read tons of them, but none are coming to mind at present. I'm really overwhelmed with stuff and not thinking too clearly.

I'm looking for novels that flip, say, from childhood in one chapter to adulthood in another and go back and forth throughout. Flashback to childhood chapter/current time story.

Thanks for your help in advance.

I want to look through a few novels and get a feel of how the writer does this. Whether it's always split by chapters or not, etc...

CaroGirl · Jan 28, 2008

Mary Lawson's The Other Side of the Bridge is a fantastic example. And set in Ontario to boot!

KTC · Jan 28, 2008

CaroGirl said:
Mary Lawson's The Other Side of the Bridge is a fantastic example. And set in Ontario to boot!

Oh, that's helpful. I'm determined to keep it Canadian content. Thanks for the title, Caro.

Danger Jane · Jan 28, 2008

Ronlyn Domingue's The Mercy of Thin Air. It also uses past tense on the contemporary parts, but present on the historical...interesting.

It's set in Louisiana, though :tongue

Doogs · Jan 28, 2008

Neal Stephenson - Quicksilver

Shady Lane · Jan 28, 2008

I'm reading Seasons of Migration to the North for my Humanities class. It changes from past to present mid-paragraph. I would not recommend it.

Stew21 · Jan 28, 2008

I think Stephen King's Gerald's Game alternates chapters past and present (present - being handcuffed to a bed in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with your deadhusband on the floor. Past - a memory revolving around an eclipse).

KTC · Jan 28, 2008

Thanks guys. This is really helping. I read Gerald's Game...I will have to think back. Jane...that is interesting. I was thinking of either doing it the other way around or all past tense. hmmm.

NicoleMD · Jan 28, 2008

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. He did some kind of funky font thing on the chapter titles, but I hardly picked up on it.

Nicole

Danger Jane · Jan 28, 2008

KTC said:
Thanks guys. This is really helping. I read Gerald's Game...I will have to think back. Jane...that is interesting. I was thinking of either doing it the other way around or all past tense. hmmm.

The opposite tenses worked really well in that story, because the narrator was dead and part of the deal is you can remember your life in perfect detail. So it makes her former life seem just as immediate as the actual present. Once I picked up on the tenses, I really liked the idea.

Finni · Jan 28, 2008

It by King

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Brothers by Da Chen

I'll try to think of others.

KTC · Jan 28, 2008

Der. It. Of course. Thank you. See...I'm really not thinking rationally.

Miguelito · Jan 28, 2008

"Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood.

"Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch.

JoNightshade · Jan 28, 2008

My book does this.

I opened each chapter with a section from the past. To make it clear, I had headers. So the past would be "Eighteen years ago," and then the present would be "Friday, March 2." (Or whatever.)

reenkam · Jan 28, 2008

The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno

The Scip · Jan 28, 2008

My WIP, care to read it?

Soccer Mom · Jan 28, 2008

The Time Travelor's Wife bounces around to past, present and future.

Linda Adams · Jan 28, 2008

Not sure if it's still in print, but The Glass Harmonica by Louise Marley.

Kryianna · Jan 28, 2008

Michael Stackpole has a book that he alternates between a previous timeline and current time. "Once a Hero", I think. I don't normally like authors flipping; he's done it the best I've read.

Storyteller5 · Jan 28, 2008

Another Canadian suggestion. The Diviners by Margaret Lawrence. It's a great read.

juneafternoon · Jan 28, 2008

Dedication - Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughling
The Pact (AWESOME book) - Jodi Picoult

Zoombie · Jan 28, 2008

"Ragtime" by E.L. Doctorow. Except you can simulate reading "Ragtime" by listening to "The Entertainer" while gouging your eyes out with yer thumbs and bashing your head against the wall.

It has no punctuation. No quotation marks, no commas, run on sentences, switches around in time randomly and reads like an thirteen year olds first erotica. You know, the kind I totally never wrote on my computer ever.

Argh, I hate that book. I hated it so much, I wanted to correct all the grammar errors while reading it. YOu know, circling run on sentences, adding paragraph breaks, putting in commas, periods and quotation marks...but it was the school's book, not mine, so I couldn't.

If you are a E.L. Doctorow fan, please disregard this post as a fear mongering hate speech.

Shweta · Jan 28, 2008

Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora. Though I don't think that aspect of the novel is entirely successful.

KTC · Jan 28, 2008

Thank you everyone. This is extremely helpful!

Twizzle · Jan 29, 2008

and don't forget Richard Russo BRIDGE OF SIGHS.

aack. time. POV. double aack.

Novels that flip flop?

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Living the dream

Stand in the Place Where You Live

my name is hannah

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Onomatopotamus

discipula vitae

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Filled with optimism. And scotch.

has finally arrived

aka cupcake

...walks this way.

Crypto-fascist

Soldier, Storyteller

Say something...

Return of the Jedi

Dragon of the Multiverse

gone

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Cluck that.