This will be a relatively short post, nothing more than a recommendation, really. If you get the chance, please read Don Robertson’s “Morris Bird III” trilogy. I’m about to finish the third book, The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened, and I’m kind of bummed. I’ve grown fond of the character and I don’t know that I want to say goodbye.
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood took place over the course of twelve years and he used the same actors. Audiences get to see the cast age organically; they get to watch the protagonist grow up.
The same applies with Robertson’s novels. The first, The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread,focuses on Morris as a boy, while the second, The Sum and Total of Now, sees him as a young adolescent, and the last novel follows a 17-year-old Morris Bird III. Same character in every book. Story is told from Morris’ perspective. But in each novel, the voice changes, grows, so that readers have access to Morris’ past experiences, essentially what defines him as a person, but hear about it in a different way. The voice ages with the protagonist. Alright, I’ve said enough. Go read ’em. You can snag them from Amazon for pretty cheap.
Huzzah!
-Gus
Ryan L. Purdy 