Books that handle flashbacks well

Cafe Society
1

Nothing too obscure, please, I’m hoping you’ll recommend something I can get my hands on quickly.

I enjoy reading and writing both, but I’m not the type of person who studies the structure of stories until I need to, so I can rarely remember which books I’ve already read that have the features I’m looking for. At the moment I’m looking for books that do a good job with frequent flashbacks, since I’d like to study some techniques as I work on my nanowrimo novel (obviously it’ll have lots of flashbacks). Alternating chapters is one way to go, but I’m sure there are other ways authors have also used to success.

Rec me something that you think does a really good job transitioning between the Now and the Then. A good example of how not to do it is The Weight Of Water by Anita Shreve, but what’s 180 from that in your opinion? Oh, preferably something in the third person, but I guess first is okay too.

2

Read a book by David Weber, and then do the opposite.

3

John Barth was a master of flashbacks, but usually in the context of a frame tale. In The Sot-Weed Factor, the characters just naturally begin talking about events in the past, and you don’t really think of it as flashbacks.

I just started reading Sir Apropos of Nothing by Peter David. The first chapter starts with a situation and jumps back to how it was set up (it’s more backfill than flashback, but it’s excellently done).

4

I thought Stephen King did an excellent job of juggling scenes from the “Now” and the “Then” in It.