Thanks Sarah

I'm a he-person and will admit to having a bookshelf that's short on women authors, not out of any policy or anything, it's just where my reading has led me over the years, so maybe MA might be a useful antidote! I'll take a look at the short stories tho I know that's not always a good guide.

Z

I've just checked - The Resplendent Quetzal is the right title, and it's in Dancing Girls. One of its narrators is a bloke, so this should be an easy introduction . . . . . .

You might have a point about the m/f divide on Atwood, Sarah...thinking about Cat's Eye and the Susanna Moodie poems, for instance...but I find that my opinion of her writing changes with each book (am a member of the fairer sex, m'self). I loved Alias Grace, though.

Another lady writer to add to your list, Zooter, is Rose Tremain. I've only read "Music and Silence", which is kinda sorta PN, and I loved it. She communicates different POVs beautifully, and for what it's worth, I found her "male" voice very convincing.

Trilby

Set in WW2 and with almost parallel narratives - one narrative a few hours ahead of the other, brilliantly managed -is Adam Thorpe's 'Lines of Perspective'. Has lots of ideas in it but is genuinely a very powerful story too.

Naomi

<Added>

Sorry 'Rules of Perspective'

Fingersmith's first and last thirds are exactly the same story, told from two perspectives, and just as much of a page turner the second time. Real virtuoso stuff.

Marge Piercy's Gone to Soldiers is alternating chapters of ten characters who link and interlink but basically have separate experiences throughout WW2. Astonishing how she keeps you caring about all of them... great stuff.

Trilby, Music and Silence is wonderful.

Parallel narrative in children's is Gideon the Cutpurse by Linda Buckley-Archer - children time-travel back to 18th century, parents in the present hunt desperately for them. Just been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Emma

Now I'm sure this doesn't help, and will probably annoy the legions of fans of Iain Banks (of whom I am one by the way) - but if you want a really poor example of parallel narrative you could check out Walking On Glass. This novel has three narrative strands running through it which are eventually "tied up" in the final chapter in a spectacularly unsatisfying and disappointing fashion. The book has plenty of enjoyable bits, so you'll have fun reading it, but the ending drove me, and everyone I know who read it, insane.

I agree. Fingersmith is fabulous.

Rose Tremain is one of my favourites. Have you read Letter to Sister Benedicta? (I don't know who this question is addressed to.) Also The Way I found her is utterly brilliant.

Sorry. Seem to have diverted from Parallel Narratives chatter . . . . .

Thanks for the Rose Tremain tips! Shall definitely seek out her other books.

Funnily enough, I found Music and Silence on my partner's bookshelf - he's not a big fan of novels/fiction, but he's a musician (which might explain why it was there in the first place). Somehow he managed to get past the gold-embossed spine and absolutely loved the book. So, a real achievement...

Trilby

Sarah, Trilby, Naomi,

Thanks, that's plenty to be going on with!!


Griff

Not a huge fan of the Banks. Did you see him in conversation with Mark Lawson on BBC3? The man can talk.

Z

No I missed that, I'd like to have seen it. I've heard all kinds of stories (not first-hand) about eccentric behaviour from Mr.Banks, including making interviewers climb out with him and sit comfortably on high-up window-ledges of tall buildings before he will talk to them.

Have you tried (and not enjoyed) any of Iain Banks books in particular, or does he just strike you as not your kind of thing ? (In the same way that I have never so much as picked up a John Grisham novel, but even though I have never given him a fair chance, there is some sixth sense telling me to have nothing to do with it.)

I really enjoyed The Wasp Factory for sheer imagination and The Crow Road as a compulsive page-turner. Or if they don't float your boat, his sci-fi is pretty good. Consider Phlebas is awesome in the original non-Bill-And-Ted sense of the word.

Griff

Don't know what it is. I've had more Banks bought for me as presents because people think I'll really like him than I've had library fines. Just never get past page three. Thought the TV adaptation of CR was superb mind.

On the programme they showed him climbing into and driving off in his new Porsche. Seemed odd. Don't really think of writers as Porsche drivers somehow...

Trilby

So often the characters and situations do their own thing...and I'm left about three-quarters of the way through wondering how the heck to tie them al together in a "meaningful" - or even remotely sensible - way

if it's any consolation, and this came as a surprise to me, Ian Rankin says he works in this way and he manages to turn out coherent plots and plenty of pages...

Z

I've heard other successful authors say the same thing, but I still think it EITHER requires a lot of practice before a writer can grow an "organic" plot by just leaving it to the characters to do their thing...OR it comes down to a storytelling gene!

Think I'll stick to detailed outlines from now on - especially where PN is concerned!

On the programme they showed him climbing into and driving off in his new Porsche. Seemed odd. Don't really think of writers as Porsche drivers somehow...

No, me neither! I guess it's nice to think that someone, somewhere, just once, earned all that money from bashing out stories at his typewriter though...

Trilby

Whenever I've tried it (I've only ever done short stuff, and I'm new to the game, started about 9 months ago) it's ended up more interesting than the thought-out things I've done. I just wrote loads, almost free-writing with zero style or polish, at a ratio of 10 or 20:1 or even more, and then really enjoyed the cutting back and moving bits around, and 'finding' the story, it's what a word processor was made for!

Z

You make a fair point - am doing NaNoWriMo at the moment for that very reason (tho' my word count has stalled in the last couple of days...ugh, only a week left!)