A brief review of a short book, “Narrative” by Amy Jones (2022)
I love storytelling which is why I read so much fiction and see so many films. I’ve even written a book of short stories (“The Rooms In My Mind”). So, I previously read “The Science Of Storytelling” by Will Storr [click here] and “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas C Foster [click here]. Now, I really enjoyed reading this slim volume (just 58 pages) subtitled “Telling The Story”.
It summarises the theory of narratology in one diagram headed “WHO tells WHAT story HOW?” The rest of the book proceeds to look at the ‘who?’ (who knew that there are nine types of narration and not just the popular third-person omniscient?), the ‘what?’ (Jones looks at exposition, description, action, dialogue and thoughts), and the “how?’ (she reviews the use of different tenses and the utilisation of a range of narrative structures from framing and Chinese boxes to something called madeleine moments).