A narrator says that everyone at the dinner table was angry. A few pages later, another character remembers the evening as awkward but affectionate. The first account may be sincere. It may also be incomplete. A first-person voice gives readers access to a person’s experience, not automatic access to every other mind in the room.
The Open University’s prose-fiction glossary distinguishes narrative concepts including perspective and unreliable narration. Those terms help frame a useful reading question: what could this particular speaker actually know?
Sort observation from interpretation
Consider this invented sentence: “Mara folded the letter, so I knew she had forgiven me.” Folding the letter is an observable action. Forgiveness is the narrator’s interpretation. A reader can accept the first while remaining uncertain about the second.
Mark a few such moments in a novel you are reading. Look for verbs that claim access to other people: knew, wanted, hated, understood. Sometimes the narrator supplies evidence, such as a conversation. Sometimes the confidence itself is part of the characterisation.
Notice when the story is being told
A character recounting childhood decades later has two possible layers of understanding: what the child felt then and what the adult believes now. A story may separate those layers carefully, or allow them to blur. Ask whether a judgement belongs to the event or to the later act of remembering.
You do not have to decide immediately that the narrator is dishonest. Limited information, embarrassment, habit and a changed memory can all create distance between an account and the larger situation. Deliberate deception is one possibility, not the only reading available.
For a book-group discussion, bring a short passage and describe the uncertainty precisely. “The narrator reports a smile and assumes agreement” gives other readers something concrete to examine. “The narrator cannot be trusted” closes the discussion before the evidence has been considered.
This approach is especially rewarding when a later scene changes the meaning of an earlier one. Return to the original wording. The author may have supplied the observable details accurately while letting the speaker’s interpretation lead you elsewhere.