Reflection in First Person

In Des Lewis's review of my latest collection, he writes of the first story, "Under the Overpass":

"[A story] from the point of view of a protagonist who tells us the story unfolding in the past even as we read it..."

Which makes me think about the way in which we tell stories, especially those in first person. One must assume when reading a first-person narrative written in past tense that the person relating the tale is doing so from some unspecified time in the future. Thus, the narrator cannot die at the end of the story, or become in some way unable to tell the story but I don't necessarily believe that we must assume the narrator is writing the story down, or related it to another in anyway. As long as he or she can tell the story to him- or herself, I don't believe anything has been violated. But another question is raised: if the narrator has lived through the events, must the story be written as though the narrator has that knowledge? Is it fair to have the narrator for instance see a woman at a dance club and explain how beautiful he found her, making no reference to later in the tale when he'll become irrevocably repulsed by her appearance?

I don't think so. It's a fuzzy line, to be sure, but I think it's legitimate for the narrator to tell the events of a tale as he or she experienced it at the time and not worry about what might happen later. Part of the story is the discovery of the truth, and since that can only be done linearly, the narrator must present the facts linearly.

That said, there must be times when the narrator can't be too ignorant of the truths he discovers by the story's end, times when it's unfair to withhold information, or rather impossible that the narrator wouldn't mention it. Of course, i can't think of any off the top of my head. Perhaps you, dear New Madness reader, could think of an example for me?

Lastly, I should point out this has little to do with first-person present-tense, which doesn't suffer these same problems. No, instead it introduces a flurry more...