Do you know any novels written in the second person?

Question

I know of one; Italo Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveller". Do you know of any other books like this?

Additional Details

Trixie reading the book descriptions on amazon it sounds more like 1st person - which of course would be consistent with it being a diary. Can you confirm this?

Trixie - thanks! what I also meant to say before was that it sounds like an interesting book regardless.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Edna O' Brien - A Pagan Place.

If you scroll down the second link (The Paris Review), you'll find she talks a bit about this to the journalist.

Source(s):

http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Herman_…

http://www.theparisreview.org/media/2978…

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

All the answers are really useful so thanks everyone! I eventually went for this answer because of the link to the essay which, although I have only initially skimmed, looks fascinating. Writing in the 2nd person is such an interesting concept because of the ambiguity of where it places the reader.

Answer 2

The old "Choose Your Own Mystery" books were written in 2nd. It strikes me as a difficult POV to maintain in reading or writing.

Source(s):

Author

Answer 3

There are a series of Fighting Fantasy game books written in 2nd person. They're written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Some of them are quite good, like a book maze, quite hard to find the end as well :P

Answer 4

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney is the only book that isn't a "choose your own adventure" type book written in second person that I know of.

Source(s):

http://www.amazon.com/Bright-Lights-Big-…

Answer 5

The book "Diary" by Chuck Palahniuk was written in second person. It's very interesting, dark, and weird like the rest of his books. And, like the rest of them, I couldn't put it down.

Yes, I can confirm that it's written in second person. I could tell you that I remember it being in second person, but memories are unreliable. On the Amazon online reader, if you go to date June 22, (page 2) you'll see that second person is used.
"By the time you read this, you'll be older than you remember... Really look at your face. Look at your eyes, your mouth..."

Source(s):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/14000328…