Challenge 2: Read a story written in the second person perpective.

Authors tend to avoid writing stories in second person. Choice of perspective is a critical part of any story, and the second person perspective has a few unique challenges as it narrows the focus of the reader down to themselves alone, similar to the first person perspective.  However, if done right, inserting the reader into the story creates a unique opportunity for the writer.  This article covers two books written in the second perspective, Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney and The Divers Clothes Lie Empty, written by Vendela Vida.

In Bright Lights, Big City, an oldie but a goodie, we meet a glass half empty kinda guy if there ever was one. He has been down on his luck for about a year, trying in vain to hold the ship together as it is sinking around him.  The death of his mother, his wife unexpectedly divorcing him, and knowledge he is about to be fired all tug as his self awareness and self esteem as he lets himself be dragged to one New York City hot spot after another by his “friend” as they search for the greatest thrills the Big Apple has to offer.

His adventures range from crashing his ex-wife's fashion show to leaving a feral ferret in his now ex-boss's office. In almost every case he is high, coming down from a high, or wishing he had some more “Bolivian Marching Powder”.  Maybe it is a product of the place and time but the almost constant cocaine use gave me some added perspective on how the war on drugs became so prevalent in the eighties.  If people were snorting cocaine everywhere you turned, I can see how people could become devoted to stamping out all forms of drug use and why national programs like D.A.R.E. could sweep America.

The protagonist puts himself down at every turn. Almost from page one he is busy denigrating himself, wishing he was the author he wants to be, or the journalist, hating his life, or wanting more coke.  It was piled on so heavily that it began to wear me out, but it wouldn’t have bothered me if it was first or third person.

In The Divers Clothes Lie Empty, a woman's much deserved vacation slides into the surreal when her backpack, containing everything from her passport and ID, to money and cell phone, is stolen.  Stranded in Casablanca with nothing but her wits and a suitcase of clothes, she is forced to make a series of difficult choices.  One problem leads to another as the decisions she makes all add up to a story just crazy enough to be believable.

Her problems are far more immediate than in Bright Lights. Trapped in a country where nobody speaks the language, with nothing but a suitcase of clothes, there was a feeling of urgency and immediacy that Bright Lights lacked. This story ran into its own set of problems, though.

Confronting the reader with so many decisions to make became difficult when she made choices that were almost the opposite of what I would have done.  It would have been easier if it had been told in first person, where the reader has a degree of distance from the protagonist.  In both of these novels the protagonist went to great lengths to avoid conflict, with both of them literally running from confrontations at one time or another.  I wouldn't be so put off from these decisions if it was somebody else, but pulling me in as the reader and making it my decision to run just took me right out of the story.

Both of these stories have protagonists dealing with serious emotional scars and in both cases their journey ends on the road to self-healing.   In Bright Lights, we understand his troubles early, and are reminded often. In Divers Clothes, her troubles are only hinted at through most of the story. It isn't until very late that we are clued in to her own dark secrets.

These novels were compelling enough to finish, but the second person perspective lent itself particularly well when driving home emotions that protagonists were feeling, such as a cherished memory or anger at a past wrongdoing.   Any sort of action, whether the protagonist was acting out a scene as a movie stand-in, or getting in a fist-fight, suffered from a need to add more color and detail, which was sorely lacking in both novels.  In both stories, any action felt like a necessary piece of the story the author was trying to get out of the way while focusing on the rest of the story.  

D.G. Raymond