The Prestige

[goatpiper]

I've never read a book similar to this one before (it's by Christopher Priest, if you don't know). It's about a fierce rivalry between two late-nineteenth century magicians in London, Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden. The first part of the book is told in first person from Andrew Westley's POV (a descendant of Borden), the second is Borden's memoir about his life and the feud between himself and Angier, the third is told in first person from Kate Angier's POV (a descendant of Angier), the fourth is excerpts from Rupert Angier's diary, telling about his life and his version of the feud, and the fifth part is first person, Andrew's POV.

Other than being an awesome story (I haven't ripped through a book that fast in a while), I loved the way he told it. It has a very balanced construction - if it were a song, it would be described as an A-B-C-D-A structure...could even be A-B1-C-B2-A, since the second and fourth parts are each and account from the respective magicians. I found it quite educational, opening my mind up to yet another way that things can be done.

I highly recommend it, if you haven't read it. Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins) is making a film version of it, and Priest has praised the script highly.

Does anyone have any books they've read that wowed them with their structure? Please share.

[LightShadow]

The Novel by James Michener. Same story from four points of view: the writer, the editor, the critic, and the reader, told as four seperate sections (or stories) and then it is all brought together in the final chapters. Elaborate, complex, and great at the end, but the journey was painful because you read the same story, in a sense, four seperate times - just from those four different POV's.

[(grasshopper)]

I really enjoyed From a Buick 8 by Stephen King which was written from several different points of view. It threw me for a loop at first, though, because I wasn't expecting it, but once I got the hang of it, it was fun. I think he did the same thing with Christine.

[Jonny Ryan Mac]

Does anyone have any books they've read that wowed them with their structure? Please share.

The Preservationist - David Maine. Fictional account of Noah and his Familly on the ark. You'll have to check it out, the writing structure is great. Noah (called Noe) is the only first person POV. Each chapter has a name and subsequently, a new POV. Noah's wife is simply called "The Wife". Its a cool idea, one that I enjoyed.