First-person narrators – unreliable, delusional, or just plain bad

It seems as if almost all the novels I read these days are narrated in the first person by flawed characters whose motives, morals, perceptions, or grip on reality are seriously subject to question. These narrators are out to manipulate you, the reader, even as they delude themselves. You get to see their world through their eyes, but sometimes you get to see right through them to what they want to conceal or are themselves unwilling to acknowledge. That's an effect that can really only be achieved in literature.

The Good Soldier
Ford Madox Ford

This is considered the archetype in the genre of unreliable narrator novels, and its reputation is deserved, although the characters are pretty consistently unlikeable and unsympathetic– especially its very unreliable narrator, John Dowell. I'm not sure I can recommend it.

Good Behaviour
Molly Keane

Good Behaviour is a dark comedy in the grand tradition of novels about aristocratic families in decline, living off their creditors and the loyalty– or desperation– of the help, whose wages are chronically in arrears. Because the story begins at the end, it's not really a spoiler to say that the novel opens with our narrator Aroon St. Charles having just murdered (maybe!) her mother with (hmm) rabbit quenelles. The rest of the book fills in the back story. Aroon appears to be a blend of deep cynicism and piteous self-deception. I'm not sure the two are compatible, which leads me to believe that Aroon may be having us on about the self-deception. In that case she is even more cynical than I thought. Read it and tell me what you think.

A Pale View of Hills
Kazuo Ishiguro

Ishiguro's first novel is one of his very best, chilling and dreamlike, a ghost story of sorts. I plan to read it again soon and report back.

Bina: A Novel in Warnings
Anakana Schofield

This extraordinary novel– or is it a book-length poem?– deserves its own blog post. And its narrator, Bina, is deserving of better adjectives than "unreliable, delusional, or just plain bad." She's angry, confused and possibly suffering from incipient dementia, virtuous, and utterly delightful... anything but unreliable. More coming soon.