unreliable?

[Terrance]

What does it mean to be unreliable? Literary critics talk about
unreliable narrators and so on ... but what are they talking about? 

 Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory

There is also what is known as the 'fallible' or 'unreliable narrator'.
Such a narrator is one whose perception and interpretation of what he or
she narrates does not correspond or coincide with the perceptions,
interpretations of the author who is who purports to be the controlling
force in the narration. Thus, there is a kind of contrived discrepancy
between the narrator (what James called 'the center of consciousness')
and the actual author. Henry James was a past master of this technique. 

PF is a Modern work. Manipulation of the reader's experience of time by
means of disruption of narrative chronology, and the possibility of
representing the nature of consciousness by describing events through
the awareness of one or more characters is a fundamental characteristic
of  Modern works of literature. 


 So many Modern authors efface themselves and  renounce the privilege of
direct
intervention. They retreat to the wings and let the characters work out
or not work out their fates on the stage. Sometimes the the guy/gal
standing  under the spot light is mad. Or sick. Or he/she is a liar. Or
brutally honest and brutal to boot...a murderer ... a nihilist ...
confused. 

Of course, long before the Moderns the relationship between an author
and a spokesperson, narrator, character-narrator, etc., was very
complex. 

And fluid. 
What is (was) an author? 
Cherrycoke?

The use of morally,  intellectually, mentally (insane... "I am a sick
man" )  deficient narrators works real well when the author is a good
ironist. It's often the case that the  ironies at work among character,
author, and reader are considerably more complex when the narrator is
deficient in some way.