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    Male author, female voice

    I can't recall when, or if, I've read a book by a male author written in the female first person before. If I did it was an awful long time ago.

    James M. Cain maybe isn't the first name that'd spring to mind to try such a thing either. Generally regarded as the third master of the classic American hard-boiled/noir novel, along with Hammett and Chandler, he's also the most controversial. Hugely popular in the late 30s and 40s, his books were also widely disliked, even by his contemporaries. Chandler wrote: "He is every kind of writer I detest... a Proust in greasy overalls, a dirty little boy with a piece of chalk and a board fence and nobody looking." Of course that's exactly why so many people liked him. His books don't flinch from adultery, sexuality, incest, depravity in general. There's no cosy in Cain.

    The Cocktail Waitress, is his last novel, retrieved and published some forty-five years after his death. Unlike many posthumous works this one doesn't disappoint. Not as searing as The Postman Always Rings Twice, or Double Indemnity for sure, but probably still on his "best of" list. The protagonist is Joan Medford, the waitress of the title and Cain assumes her voice throughout. It generally sounds OK to me, but I really don't know (not being female.) A woman might argue that the unwanted attention of having her breasts kneaded (for example,) isn't something women are likely to write about themselves? OTOH it does kinda seem in character, but of course Cain created that character. I do know that it would be a brave/stupid male author to attempt something similar today.

    So any other instances of assumption of gender/sex? As I said I can't think of any off the top of my head.

    #2
    I can think of lots of novels with female central protagonists written by Men, some of which are felt to capture the feelings and mindset of the Woman accurately (Anna Karenina is the first that leaps to mind), but not explicitly in the first person. Aren't novels that do, for either a male or female, a pretty modern form anyway?

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      #3
      Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina leaped immediately to my mind in that vein.

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        #4
        I can't claim to have thought of these of the top of my head, but a quick google does bring up a couple of extremely famous books that fit this pattern - Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.

        One that I have thought of myself is that some of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas does this. I can't remember whether the Louisa Rey bits are first person or not, but I'm pretty sure the Orison for Somni segments are.

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          #5
          Huh, googling was too slow there. As whined by ever pub quiz team in the last 20 years.

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            #6
            Flaubert also speaks in the voices of other characters, though. My sense from Amor’s original post is that Cain is more exclusive.

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              #7
              Again it makes me wonder how many novels there are which are entirely from a single non-narrated viewpoint?

              Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd apparently does this. I've not read it, so can't comment further on that.

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                #8
                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                Flaubert also speaks in the voices of other characters, though. My sense from Amor’s original post is that Cain is more exclusive.
                Yes. The entirety of The Cocktail Waitress is in Joan's voice. Cain apparently wrote a couple of early partial drafts in the third person but rewrote them. It's understandable, much of the novel's tension depends on whether you believe the protagonist or not.

                I read Brazzaville Beach, probably around the time it was published, but don't have a strong memory of it (apart from chimpanzees killing each other.) I'd forgotten it had a female Jane Goodall-ish narrator.

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                  #9
                  Iain Banks's Whit is the only one that spings to mind, although [spoiler alert] Wasp Factory also qualifies. It's not delving far into the female psyche though, you get the feeling that he just thought it would be better for the plot if Isis was female, and then he could get on with things.

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                    #10
                    Hell's bells pebble, that wasn't much of a spoiler warning.

                    If you edit [ spoiler ] and [ /spoiler ] tags (minus the spaces there) in around the text in question, it'll actually be hidden.


                    Like this: "Iain Banks's Whit is the only one that spings to mind, although [spoiler]Wasp Factory[/spoiler] also qualifies."

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                      #11
                      Nick Hornby's "How to be Good" has a first person female narrator. Also, as suggested by the title, Ian Fleming's Bond novel "The Spy Who Loved Me" is written entirely in the first person by the female character Vivienne Michel.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by Janik View Post
                        I can think of lots of novels with female central protagonists written by Men, some of which are felt to capture the feelings and mindset of the Woman accurately (Anna Karenina is the first that leaps to mind), but not explicitly in the first person. Aren't novels that do, for either a male or female, a pretty modern form anyway?
                        Not exactly a novel, but Chaucer had a bit of a crack at it with his Wife of Bath, in a not so modern form, or language.

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                          #13
                          Would Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal fit in here?

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                            #14
                            Good question, as Myra is of course also Myron.

                            The Spy Who Loved Me would be an interesting comparison with The Cocktail Waitress, as the sexuality of the protagonist/narrator is central to both. I read TSWLM in my teens I'm sure but, once again, remember nothing about it.

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                              #15
                              Stephen King has written quite a few stories with strong female characters at the forefront but "Dolores Claiborne " is the only one mainly in the first person I can think of

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                                #16
                                Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe) was written read in the first person, great book as far as I remember. Famous opening lines:

                                My true name is so well known in the records or registers at Newgate, and in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence still depending there, relating to my particular conduct, that it is not be expected I should set my name or the account of my family to this work; perhaps, after my death, it may be better known; at present it would not be proper, no not though a general pardon should be issued, even without exceptions and reserve of persons or crimes.

                                It is enough to tell you, that as some of my worst comrades, who are out of the way of doing me harm (having gone out of the world by the steps and the string, as I often expected to go), knew me by the name of Moll Flanders, so you may give me leave to speak of myself under that name till I dare own who I have been, as well as who I am.
                                I remember studying long excerpts of the (1979) English-French translation in a forensic way in tutorials in my 1st year at uni, a real eye-opener (poor translation by the late French writer and Academician Dominique Fernandez, a new and long-overdue E>F translation was published a few years ago; I’ve never seen it mind but it’s got to be an improvement on Fernandez’s, I’ve never read any Fernandez, he may well have been a great writer but he should really have stuck to writing).

                                This is interesting about Moll Flanders:

                                https://www.shmoop.com/moll-flanders...ty-quotes.html

                                The author is here supposed to be writing her own history, and in the very beginning of her account she gives the reasons why she thinks fit to conceal her true name, after which there is no occasion to say any more about that. (Preface 2)

                                The person writing this is, of course, Daniel Defoe, the book's real author. But in a strange twist, he writes the Preface as a character version of himself, and then tells us that the book's actual narrator is a completely different person who goes by Moll Flanders. Right off the bat, we've got a serious identity crisis on our hands. But then, by shifting the focus to why Moll Flanders never says what her real name is, Defoe distracts us from the question of just who wrote the book and whether it's true. Thanks a lot, Mr. Sneaky.

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                                  #17
                                  Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe) was written read in the female first person, great book as far as I remember. Famous opening lines:

                                  My true name is so well known in the records or registers at Newgate, and in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence still depending there, relating to my particular conduct, that it is not be expected I should set my name or the account of my family to this work; perhaps, after my death, it may be better known; at present it would not be proper, no not though a general pardon should be issued, even without exceptions and reserve of persons or crimes.

                                  It is enough to tell you, that as some of my worst comrades, who are out of the way of doing me harm (having gone out of the world by the steps and the string, as I often expected to go), knew me by the name of Moll Flanders, so you may give me leave to speak of myself under that name till I dare own who I have been, as well as who I am.
                                  I remember studying long excerpts of the (1979) English-French translation in a forensic way in tutorials in my 1st year at uni, a real eye-opener (poor translation by the late French writer and Academician Dominique Fernandez, a new and long-overdue E>F translation was published a few years ago; I’ve never seen it mind but it’s got to be an improvement on Fernandez’s, I’ve never read any Fernandez, he may well have been a great writer but he should really have stuck to writing).

                                  This is interesting about Moll Flanders:

                                  https://www.shmoop.com/moll-flanders...ty-quotes.html

                                  The author is here supposed to be writing her own history, and in the very beginning of her account she gives the reasons why she thinks fit to conceal her true name, after which there is no occasion to say any more about that. (Preface 2)

                                  The person writing this is, of course, Daniel Defoe, the book's real author. But in a strange twist, he writes the Preface as a character version of himself, and then tells us that the book's actual narrator is a completely different person who goes by Moll Flanders. Right off the bat, we've got a serious identity crisis on our hands. But then, by shifting the focus to why Moll Flanders never says what her real name is, Defoe distracts us from the question of just who wrote the book and whether it's true. Thanks a lot, Mr. Sneaky.

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                                    #18
                                    Good shout I'd forgotten about Moll. Not quite the same thing, but male writers taking on female pseudonyms was fairly common practice in the 18th Century, especially if they wanted to write for the, already popular, women's publications.

                                    Interestingly I've a good friend who's published half-a-dozen novels, mainly mysteries, through reputable US publishers. His last one died a death, partly because they did less than nothing to promote it. Word from his agent is that he's no longer "up and coming," nor is he a big seller so publishers aren't willing to put time into it. It would help, he was told, if he was willing to write under a female name.

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                                      #19
                                      Wittoner mentioned "How to be Good" by Nick Hornby. I enjoyed that.

                                      "Hey Nostradamus" by Douglas Coupland has 4 sections with first person narrators and 2 of them are women.

                                      Iain Banks also wrote as a female first person in "The Business".

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                                        #20
                                        I think he (Banks) wrote that in six weeks after 9 11, at least according to the promotion of it. It definitely read like it tbh. Not a prose stylist.
                                        Last edited by Lang Spoon; 19-05-2018, 00:00.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Kev7 View Post
                                          My true name is so well known in the records or registers at Newgate, and in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence still depending there, relating to my particular conduct, that it is not be expected I should set my name or the account of my family to this work; perhaps, after my death, it may be better known; at present it would not be proper, no not though a general pardon should be issued, even without exceptions and reserve of persons or crimes.
                                          I remember studying long excerpts of the (1979) English-French translation in a forensic way in tutorials in my 1st year at uni, a real eye-opener (poor translation by the late French writer and Academician Dominique Fernandez, a new and long-overdue E>F translation was published a few years ago; I’ve never seen it mind but it’s got to be an improvement on Fernandez’s, I’ve never read any Fernandez, he may well have been a great writer but he should really have stuck to writing).
                                          I like how Defoe's typical sentence structure appears to have rubbed off on you here, Kev.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            I'll take that as a compliment! Worse things could have happened to my English I suppose.

                                            I’ve only read Moll Flanders by Defoe, in the 1980s, I remember really liking it at the time but who knows, maybe I wouldn’t now.

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                                              #23
                                              The Woman in White is sometimes narrated in Marian's voice, isn't it? I love that book, long time since I've read it.

                                              The Crimson Petal and the White, sometimes in Sugar's voice.

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                                                #24
                                                In the country of last things by Paul Auster is written from a woman's point of view. It is not among his strongest efforts.

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