Your thoughts on having a prologue and epilogue for a novel

[Thudlow_Boink]

I’ve expressed my dislike of prologues before, in such old threads as Writers, Readers: What do you feel is the purpose of a prologue? and Book worms: How far before you realize the book that you are reading is crap?

@Thudlow_Boink

I admit to having a strong prejudice against prologues in works of fiction. Often they’re evidence of authorial self-indulgence or laziness. Often they’re a piece of Writing (with a capital W) that doesn’t fit in the story but the author can’t bear to leave it out. They constitute an obstacle to getting into the story.

I don’t want a shadow over the rest of the narrative, and I don’t want cutesy hints of what’s to come way before it actually does or I care about anybody involved. I want to find things out when the P.O.V. characters do.
…
I like being immersed in the world of the story, not briefly dunked in one world, then pulled out and whisked away to a different one.

I don’t really have a strong feeling one way or the other about epilogues.