Third person…

I started reading a book last night that I know got good reviews. At least, people who’ve read it have said good things about it to me. The author (who shall remain nameless) also has won a spattering of awards for this, and other books. Like one of her other books that I read, which also was highly praised, I just couldn’t get into it. I did finish the other one, but it left me feeling a bit ho-hum towards it. In the time since I read that book, I’ve realized that I generally don’t like books written in third person.

Of course there are exceptions. The Betsy-Tacy series, which are my all time favorite kids books are written in third person. Harry Potter is written in third person and I never feel “removed” from the narative like I do with so many third person books. I’m still trying to figure out why this is.

I guess you could say that generally the third person books that I can’t get in to feel as if the author is talking down to the reader. In a sense, then I’m talking about the quality of the writing , not the tense, but perhaps it’s just that much more apparent in third person than in first.

I did not pay attention too much to the craft of writing when I was growing up and reading, but looking back, I think most of the stuff I read was probably third person. Either I have just gotten so used to first (and of course, I write in first exclusively), or there is a lot more first person stuff out there now, so third person feels awkward to read.

If anyone’s out there, I’d love to hear your comments.