Hot take: my book club nearly broke up over whether the narrator in our last pick was unreliable or just bad at remembering things

Last month in Austin, our group of 8 spent a full two hours arguing if the main character's fuzzy details from chapter 3 were intentional or just lazy writing, and now I'm wondering if anyone else has had a debate like this split their group.

2 comments

2 Comments

kim9632d ago

Got in a screaming match with my book club over whether the main character was a liar or just had bad memory. Turns out the author intentionally left it vague, but we were all convinced we were right. Three months later and two people still won't sit next to each other at meetings. I'd be lying if I said the whole thing didn't make me question my own memory of previous books we read. Pretty sure one member still brings it up just to stir the pot.

milestaylor2d ago

Honestly read something similar in a lit journal about how memory is basically a creative process anyway, so the whole unreliable narrator debate just proves the author was doing their job right. Ngl that argument about chapter 3 sounds exactly like the kind of fight that turns book club into therapy, like yall are really fighting over who has the better brain. Tbh the two people not sitting together is wild though, sounds like someone needs to just admit the book won and move on.