Examples of novels where MC's involvement in events is fabricated in the end?

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TrixieLox

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Has anyone got any examples of successful novels where the MC's role in the events featured throughout the novel turns out not to have occurred? But the events themselves have occurred?

And I don't mean because the MC is deliberately unreliable, but because they've been watching / hearing from, say, a vulnerable place (eg, locked up but able to hear what's going on) and imagined themselves in the events described? This is just an example.

I can think of examples where some of the involvement is made up (SPOILER ALERT: eg one of R*samund L*pton's books). But nothing where more than some is. And am wondering if anything more than a little bit of this just turns out to be deceiving the reader... and therefore, royally peeing them off.

Hope this makes sense!
 
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Spoiler alert

Nice example which I considered. But ultimately (from what I recall, I might be wrong), the MC in Fight Club did do all the things his 'alter ego' did. Whereas I'm thinking in terms of the MC having been passive and re-imagined events as though they'd played a role in it, but hadn't.
 
katci13

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I saw a movie a couple of months ago. (Forget the name, but it starred Lucy Hale...bad horror movie) in which the narrator was pretending to be someone else in the story she was telling the whole time. It was an interesting twist, kind of made me like the movie a little and want to watch it again with the new information. I know that's not a book, but I haven't read a book like that to my knowledge.
 
Coop720

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American Psycho is ambiguous in this sense. You're not sure what he experienced or what he actually did throughout a lot of the novel/film.
 
Torgo

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Here's one. This is Schrodinger's Spoiler; if you haven't read the book (or seen the movie), highlighting this will instantly spoil a good, if somewhat silly, story you might otherwise have enjoyed; but there's probably no way to warn you without identifying the book. Unless 'Laeddis' rings a bell? SPOILER:Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane.ENDSPOILER
 
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TrixieLox said:
Has anyone got any examples of successful novels where the MC's role in the events featured throughout the novel turns out not to have occurred? But the events themselves have occurred?

And I don't mean because the MC is deliberately unreliable, but because they've been watching / hearing from, say, a vulnerable place (eg, locked up but able to hear what's going on) and imagined themselves in the events described? This is just an example.

I can think of examples where some of the involvement is made up (SPOILER ALERT: eg one of R*samund L*pton's books). But nothing where more than some is. And am wondering if anything more than a little bit of this just turns out to be deceiving the reader... and therefore, royally peeing them off.

Hope this makes sense!
Click to expand...

This may be a little far from what you're looking for, but one of my all-time favorite movies is Memento starring Guy Pierce. God this movie is complicated but it's so good.

The main character, Leonard, has a condition where he can't create new memories. He has an instant memory of 5 minutes or so, but he can't remember anything beyond that. The movie is from his point of view, so we see things in five minute fragments, just like he remembers things. The last thing he remembers before his accident is that two men raped and killed his wife, and this is his story of finding revenge. It's interesting to see how a man with amnesia solves a murder mystery.

As Leonard learns information about the attackers, he leaves permanent notes for himself to find later, like tattoos on his body. There's an ominous question looming throughout the whole movie: If he gets revenge and kills the attackers, does it make a difference if he can't remember it?

Here's the spoiler ending which kind of relates to what you're asking: Leonard and a cop, Teddy, find one of the guys who killed his wife. Leonard murders this guy before Teddy can intervene. Leonard take a Polaroid picture of the dead body so he will have a memento of his revenge forever. But the cop, Teddy, explains to Leonard that they've killed the real attacker over a year ago. He says they purposely made the puzzle unsolvable, because a man without the ability to make new memories will never be able to rest if he can't remember the revenge. Leonard is intentionally keeping himself in a state of seeking revenge. After Teddy explains this, Leonard burns the Polaroid picture and lets himself start the revenge all over again.

This movie is complicated but it's so awesome. Here's the wikipedia. So yes to answer your question, deceiving the reader/viewer is sometimes awesome.
 
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