I was interested to learn when I did some rooting around on this topic that the term was only defined in 1961! Unreliable narrators go back far longer than that.
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Originally Posted by gmw
I've had similar difficulties. One of the problems is that having an "unreliable narrator" theme is actually a spoiler for some stories - and with a mystery that can be disastrous for the first-time read.
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No question that some books would be spoilt by knowing the narrator is unreliable going in, but it doesn't really matter for others. Either it's obvious from the start or the reader should have been reserving judgment anyway, that is, I think any first person account should imply the possibility that all is not as the narrator assumes or chooses to tell.
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Originally Posted by darryl
I'm going to nominate a classic, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
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This was on my short list for possible nominations.
