Narration advice

Will you be following the other POVs when they are not around the middle son? If so I'd do either form of 3rd for all, if not I'd do 1st for the whole story.

I think first person can work as well as third for first novels. I've certainly run across plenty of debuts written in first. It's about what makes you most comfortable and about what works best for your story.

As for deciding whether or not you need multiple povs, it's not so much about whether important things happen away from the main protagonist. That's always going to be true. When a writer has one viewpoint character, they can still show the reader things via discoveries made by the protagonist or by subtext (things the pov character interprets differently than the reader might). It can heighten tension for the reader to not know what's going on any more than the protagonist does and to discover things as they do.

However, multiple povs may be called for if there are other characters who also have major arcs that drive important parts of the plot that are separate enough from the main protagonist's that it's better to show it though their eyes. Especially if these characters have arcs of their own that involve change and growth. Of course some novels, like many romances, have two true co-protagonists as well.

Another time when secondary povs might be better is when they're doing things that influence what happens to the pov character to such an extent that it might feel "too convenient" or coincidental if their activities aren't shown "on camera." For instance, if the pov character is captured and imprisoned for several months while their friends plan and execute a rescue, it would be rather dull to show them moldering away the whole time wondering what to do, even if they make some escape attempts (unless they are doing plot-relevant things as a prisoner, of course). But if the character is captured in chapter 16 and rescued in chapter 17, the rescue might seem anticlimactic. So in cases like this, it makes sense to move back and forth between what's happening to the prisoner and what's going on with the rescue effort. Done right, this can greatly heighten tension and the sense of stakes.

How are the POVs balanced? Is the middle son meant to be the primary narrator that the readers will anchor to, and the others are secondary stories? Or is it an ensemble cast where all the storylines have relatively equal weight?

If they're all equal, I wouldn't single one out with a first-person narrator -- that instantly places him one step closer to the reader than any of the others.

The choice between multiple 3rd limited and omniscient POVs is a bit trickier and basically comes down to how much flexibility/variation do you want in your narrative voice. With omniscient you can pull in tight or pull back much more freely, and there are other narrative techniques available that you can't really use when narrative focus is tied to a single character's head, but omni also loses some of the intimacy you can get with a tight 3rd person limited.

I'm writing my first novel in first person, but my character is writing a book so there's plenty of mix of pov's since he is a stalker, manipulator and many other things .. very interesting and exciting experience I must say, never boring which is what I was concerned about the most, that half way through the novel I'll be bored and give up or jump onto another project Good luck to you btw ^ ^

Doesn't matter what pundits recommend for first novels. The story you want to tell should determine the POV you use.

Would it help to have an outside, omniscient narrator who sees all and has an attitude? ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." "“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.") Omniscient POV requires such a narrator ---it's not, as many beginning writers believe, an excuse for promiscuous head-hopping.

Can you tell the story optimally from a single character's POV? If so, third person limited (or first person) may be your best bet. Both of these tend to promote strong reader identification with the POV character.

Maybe that's too limiting. If you do need other POV's to tell this story, you could go with several POV characters--only one per scene, though, to avoid giving readers that head-hopping vertigo. Just bear in mind that introducing a new POV is like adding another dimension and shouldn't be done lightly. Having lots of POV characters tends to weaken the readers identification with the protagonist. My usual rule of thumb (which,like all writing rules, can be broken for good cause) is that you use the minimum number of POV characters required to get the story told.

The point is, it's not at all an arbitrary choice, but should arise from the story itself.

What is the story? Is the story how the son deals with his family's problems? Is it equally everybody's story? In the latter case, make sure that the first person POVs are interesting enough so that the readers aren't wading through sections to get to their favourite parts.

Or maybe it's about Catholicism and society, in which case a third person narrative may be more effective. Third person narratives allow some critical distance- you can give an outsiders' perspective- whereas with first person, you are stuck in that person's head.