Quotation marks in novels

[Miss Shelf]

I'm not sure I like what seems to be a new trend in books-the absence of quotation marks to indicate someone is speaking. I first encountered this phenomenon in Roddy Doyle's books and now, as I'm reading "The Love Wife", here it is again. I read rather fast, so it's slowing me down to decipher who a person is talking to. Does anyone else find this irritating, or doesn't it matter? I need to know if I'm just a crochety old fart.

 

[novella]

I'm not sure I like what seems to be a new trend in books-the absence of quotation marks to indicate someone is speaking. I first encountered this phenomenon in Roddy Doyle's books and now, as I'm reading "The Love Wife", here it is again. I read rather fast, so it's slowing me down to decipher who a person is talking to. Does anyone else find this irritating, or doesn't it matter? I need to know if I'm just a crochety old fart.

I think Cormac McCarthy does without them, as did--I think--Joan Didion in Everything He Wanted. And some others I've read.

I find that if the book is written well enough, I don't notice after the initial adjustment. As an trend, I think it takes away clarity and adds another hurdle between the reader and the text, so I don't know why any author would choose it, unless they are making some Delilo-ish post-modernist philosophical point that is beyond my caring.

 

[mojo]

I think it depends on why it's done. In books where there's a lot of slang and dialect, I think it makes the pace faster and more conversational. For example in Frank McCourt's 'Angela's Ashes', or anything by Irvine Welsh or Lewis Grassic Gibbon, the speed at which the Irish and Scottish speak would be that fast and hard to understand, so it's more accurate. It works well with characters like Terry Pratchett's Death as well, to emphasize how different his speech is to that of ordinary mortals...

 

[skylarburris]

Annoys me

It annoys me, because it is oh-so-trendy, confusing, and, it seems, deliberately defiant of tradition for the mere sake of defying tradition.

 

[Herenya]

I've come across a few books without them. In one, i found it really confusing. Sometimes, it's hard enough to determine who is speaking with quotation marks! I personally just think it's annoying. What's wrong with quotation marks, anyway?