Can anyone think of a REALISTIC young adult novel by an American writer that uses omniscient point of view from the last 20 years? It can be limited omniscient or the big old editorial kind.
(Feeling much better, thanks.)
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It’s not REALISTIC per se, I guess it’s actually considered fantasy, but Michael Chabon’s Summerland uses the omniscient.
John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines uses an omniscient narrator, I think.
Katherines is a good thought, Libby. I’ll have to check it out — it might be third person limited, but I can’t remember for sure.
ONE WHOLE AND PERFECT DAY by Judith Clarke
Oops. Not American. Scratch that.
I know, it’s hard, isn’t it? I just got Clarke’s book out from the library though, to look at the omniscient POV in it. 🙂
Yes, very hard! The last great American book that comes to mind is THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin, but that was 30 years ago.
How about A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt? A touching book about a young boy’s struggle to understand his mother’s behavior after she leaves his father and him. Very realistic and relevant.
Thanks for the tip, John!
last twenty, huh? i was thinking of THE CHOCOLATE WAR but that’s last thirty i think.
MY SISTER’S KEEPER by jodi picoult is technically SF , i guess.
THE BOOK THIEF by markus zusak is technically all from the pov of death as a character, but since death is omniscient, i think it counts.
that’s all i got.
Hey Claire — thanks for the thoughts. I’m actually using The Book Thief as one of my examples of contemporary editorial omniscient, since it’s done quite a lot by authors from other countries (Zusak’s an Aussie). And I’ve even got several realistic novels to boot — there must be at least a handful by Americans, the exceptions that prove my point, but I’m having trouble finding even those.
While REPOSSESSED is written in the first person, most of Kiriel’s prior knowledge comes from an omniscient viewpoint. Kind of an interesting narrative voice.
I’ve been thinking about Paul Fleischman in my efforts to help, because he has done so many brilliant things, and sure enough I’ve found an answer to our prayers. Check out COMING-AND-GOING-MEN (Harper, 1985) which I hope you can find (certainly on ILL). The first story–a story, not a novel, but it works.
Yay! I bow, as always!
“Hoot” (Carl Hiaasen) uses at least limited omniscient. I’d have to re-read it to see if he switches characters, but I think he does.
He probably learned that style working as a newspaper reporter.