10 votes

Novel idea: The Apartment

Just finished (re-)watching the Friends TV series ... End of the last episode, sitting in the empty apartment (Joey: "Has it always been purple?" Phoebe: "Do you realize that at one time or another, we've all lived in this apartment?")

Got me thinking, more as a plot contrivance than the actual plot, a story about an apartment, spanning a century or more, and the various people that lived in it, jumping back and forth across time, linking them together through history ... perhaps even, a la "Ship of Theseus", spanning multiple centuries and multiple homes/dwellings that occupied the same space.

So specifically, I'm wondering if anyone can think of any novels that adopt this idea, or anything similar, as a primary vehicle for their storytelling?

I have a vague recollection of a short story or novella in 2ndary school, about the life of a redwood, and the various people and animals that lived in and around it over the centuries ... and also I recall reading "A Winter Tale" by Mark Helperin -- a semi-fantastical novel about the city of New York ... oh look, apparently, they made it into a movie, too.

But those two are the only examples I can think of that come close to this idea.

PS: I love to write fiction, and someday I may even finish a novel ... but generally, I get about halfway through, figure out how it's going to end, and then lose interest ... so if anyone with more ambition likes the idea, you're welcome to it.


ETA: I'm not looking for the 10,000 variations of "oooh, haunted by the ghost of a person that died here 20 years ago". Broader, covering a longer timeframe, multiple substories interwoven into the same living space, you get the idea.

4 comments

  1. rogue_cricket
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    The short comic Here by Richard McGuire comes to mind. I think I've read a short story to this effect as well, but I can't bring specifics to mind in the moment.

    The short comic Here by Richard McGuire comes to mind.

    I think I've read a short story to this effect as well, but I can't bring specifics to mind in the moment.

    5 votes
  2. kfwyre
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    I don't know of any stories off-hand that do this, but I actually had a thought to do something similar to this but from the perspective of a classroom, where you could tell the stories of the...

    I don't know of any stories off-hand that do this, but I actually had a thought to do something similar to this but from the perspective of a classroom, where you could tell the stories of the teacher (or teachers) who inhabited the room and the students that cycled in and out from the space over the years, as well as articulating shifting cultural, instructional, and technological trends.

    3 votes
  3. [3]
    Comment deleted by author
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    1. Eric_the_Cerise
      Link Parent
      The actual plot is still very amorphous ... lots of possibilities to explore ... my first thought was a "Friends"-like NY apartment, tracking back to a Native American village before Europeans...

      The actual plot is still very amorphous ... lots of possibilities to explore ... my first thought was a "Friends"-like NY apartment, tracking back to a Native American village before Europeans took over the Island ... but yeah, Rome is also very promising.

      2 votes
    2. acdw
      Link Parent
      OOh the Coliseum! It was apartments in the Middle Ages!

      OOh the Coliseum! It was apartments in the Middle Ages!

      1 vote