One way writers have gone about this is by juxtaposing narratives whose plots have no apparent (or immediately apparent) intersecting points. Philip Hensher wrote about such parallel narratives here in 2014, and while some of my own choices fit neatly into this category I have also selected examples of “parallelism” by other means, including within a single storyline. Of course, to be parallel in the purest sense, narratives mustn’t intersect or converge at all, whereas “parallel narratives” as we’ve come to understand them do — if not plotwise then thematically, and obviously their author is always an element in common. The Counterlife by Philip Roth (1986)This astonishing novel not only contains parallel narratives, in that certain characters are granted multiple lives and divergent destinies; its plotlines also brake, reverse, change lanes, and occasionally sideswipe one another, exemplifying a point Roth has been making exquisitely for years: life’s a mess. Philip Hensher's top 10 parallel narratives Read more9.

Source: The Guardian March 07, 2018 09:33 UTC