Multi-Perspective Books: Mostly Written By Guys?

12/16/2013

4 Comments

 
I'm finding a weirdly specific trend, in fantasy at least: Books by female authors tend to have only one POV (MAYBE two, if it's the love interest), whereas books by male authors are likely to have a handful or more. 
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(Photo via Luc De Leeuw on flickr.)
I'm doing a skim of my Goodreads shelves (looking particularly at the high fantasy one), and although I read mostly books by ladies... I've only found about four that interweave 3+ perspectives. And most of those by men fit that requirement easily. Very strange.

I'll keep my speculations on why this seems to be a pattern to myself for the moment, but I'm curious: Anyone else have thoughts on this, or have a book in mind that breaks the trend?
4 Comments
Marian link
12/16/2013 01:12:03 pm

I would actually strongly disagree--I can think of numerous women who have written from multiple points of view, from both the first and third person perspective. Catherynne Valente, Tamora Pierce, Joanne Harris, Patricia McKillip, Francesca Lia Block, Anne Bishop, Jodi Picoult (yeah, I know), Philippa Gregory, Erin Morgenstern...

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Arliss Grove link
12/16/2013 01:36:23 pm

I'm thinking not "have written from multiple points of view," but "have written multi-POV books" -- that is to say, books in which the perspective shifts many times between different characters (a la *Song of Ice and Fire*, *Wheel of Time*, and a bunch of other series by dudes that I can think of). And, narrowing it a bit more, switches not only between the two romance hero(ine)s.

Not familiar with the entire ouvres of the above authoresses, though -- which works were you thinking of?

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Marian link
12/19/2013 11:18:15 am

I think that the above authors meet your criteria?

"The Folded World" by Cat Valente is told from four different perspectives, each under their own selection a la George R.R. Martin; the sequel adds a fifth POV. "The Lollipop Shoes" by Joanne Harris has three narrators (a woman, her daughter and a family friend). "The Black Jewels" by Anne Bishop is tells the story of a young woman through the eyes of her brother, lover and father. In "The Boleyn Inheritance", Philippa Gregory paints a vivid picture of the downfall of Katherine Howard and Anne of Cleves from their POVs, as well as that of Jane Boleyn. (Henry VIII is depicted as being so repulsive in that novel I hesitate to call them romantic heroines despite their marriages being central to the conflict) In Francesca Lia Block's "Violet and Claire", the title characters (whose relationship can be read as either relationship *or* platonic) have separate, first person POVs. Block does something similar in "I Was a Teenage Fairy".

Marian link
12/19/2013 11:18:26 am

I think that the above authors meet your criteria?

"The Folded World" by Cat Valente is told from four different perspectives, each under their own selection a la George R.R. Martin; the sequel adds a fifth POV. "The Lollipop Shoes" by Joanne Harris has three narrators (a woman, her daughter and a family friend). "The Black Jewels" by Anne Bishop is tells the story of a young woman through the eyes of her brother, lover and father. In "The Boleyn Inheritance", Philippa Gregory paints a vivid picture of the downfall of Katherine Howard and Anne of Cleves from their POVs, as well as that of Jane Boleyn. (Henry VIII is depicted as being so repulsive in that novel I hesitate to call them romantic heroines despite their marriages being central to the conflict) In Francesca Lia Block's "Violet and Claire", the title characters (whose relationship can be read as either relationship *or* platonic) have separate, first person POVs. Block does something similar in "I Was a Teenage Fairy".




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