Novelist Tana French (post 4), who says “We’re all unreliable narrators,” misunderstands the concept and what it may imply about the narrator

Definition

Unreliable narrators are unreliable in that they do not tell what most readers would consider the truth. Causes of unreliability include lying, joking, and multiple personality.

Tana French

“I love unreliable narrators, and I would absolutely love to think I have even a tiny part in there being more of them around…We’re all unreliable narrators: we all unavoidably see only a certain amount of what’s going on, and then we filter it through our own interests and desires and fears and biases. So when a really well-written narrator is showing us only the skewed version of the truth that he or she is able to see, that’s when we’re most deeply immersed in him or her, and that’s when we reach the deepest understanding of that truth that other people are real too” (1).

Multiple Personality

In multiple personality, each alternate personality (alter) has it own reality in regard to self-image, memories, interests, talents, purpose, and world view. Each alter’s memories may have gaps, and its special interests will lead it to attend to certain things only, so each alter’s overall view of reality will be distorted accordingly. And which view of reality is being presented at any given time depends on which personality is in control. Thus, if a narrator is unreliable, one possible explanation is that it is an alternate personality.

Why does Tana French think that “we’re all unreliable narrators”? Perhaps she thinks that everyone has multiple personality.

1. Interview, October 9, 2018. “Tana French: We’re All Unreliable Narrators.” https://crimereads.com/tana-french-were-all-unreliable-narrators/