First-Person Writing...

I seem to be doing first person mostly. It’s for me a way of gaining stylistic freedom. I’m able to use conversational tones and rhythms that give great expressive value and appeal for me. I can turn the volume up and down within a single sentence. I can slip in and out of the kind of colloquial talk and the kind of formal talk I’m partial to. And of course it’s the “I” who can be most intimate, who speaks in confidence, who tells us secrets.
- Philip Roth

Narcissism is self-obsession or self-love, it can be as much a part of a third person tale as one in the first person. “John Smith is the smartest person in the world” (written by John Smith) is as narcissistic as “I am the smartest person in the world,” said by John Smith.

The advantage of first-person is that it more readily allows an author to get inside the mind of the leading character than third person. It also allows the author to talk, one on one, with the reader.