Recommendations for Literary Fiction

[Chris Mosher]

Hi Escapist community, I want to set myself up a challenge for the new year. After years of reading mostly genre stories I want to expand my horizons beyond sci fi, horror and fantasy.

My plan is to spend the year reading literary fiction but I really don't know much about the field. I just don't know whats good or what would really fit my tastes so I'm looking for recommendations from you guys.

Over the years I have gathered up the following novels to start off from :

A Visit From the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
White Noise and Underworld - Dan Delillo
Hard Boiled Wonderland - Murakami
Blood Meridian - Cormac MacCarthy
The Death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave.

I think these books are reflective of what I would enjoy from the field. I'm interested in getting a wide variety of authors, male / female and authors from different cultures/countries. Also to make it easier, I am mostly interested in contempary books.

Thanks for any help.

 

[MammothBlade]

Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I'm reading it now and it's a wtfomgthisisgreat book.

Oh, I see, you want something that isn't sci-fi...

Sorry, I'm no good with books in the last decade. *shuffles out of thread*

 

[Chris Mosher]

No worries. I've read Song of Kali years ago and Carion Comfort is on my to read shelf. He's not a half bad author.

 

[cerealnmuffin]

I'm sure at least one of these books will interest you ^^ I love lit fit, but mainly ones that take risks.

I'm reading Drood by him which is really good if you like Charles Dickens. It is historical fiction, as told by his jealous friend Wilkie Collins (a largely forgotten writer of the time), about Charles Dickens change into a killer obsessed with the macabre.

The Virigin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides will grab your attention within the first page, the girls of this family all commit suicide in horrid ways. The story is told from the perspective of a group of boys trying to get to know the girls before their demise.

House of Leaves by Charles Danielewski is one of the scariest books I have read. It is a haunted house story told from the perspectives of a man slowly going mad, diaries of a husband becoming obsessed with exploring the secret rooms of the house (that ever shift like a giant maze), and a blind video researcher's notes.

If On a Winter's Night Tale a traveler by Italo Calvino is written completely in second person. It is about you are reading a book and become obsessed with finding the missing pages. What is great are the moments where as a reader, we disagree that we are feeling such and such feeling as the book tells us, so the book argues with you that you ARE feeling and doing as the book says =0

Grendel (forgot the author) is the Beowulf tale from the perspective of the monster, Grendel.

Woman in the Dunes by Kobe Abe. He is Japan's Kafka. The story is about a researcher is forced to live in a city built INTO the desert. They capture men to force them to keep the sand from burying them alive.

Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami is about two babies who were abandoned in a train station locker. They grow up with the purpose of seeking revenge against their mother. Into the Miso Soup is about a taxi driver driving around a serial killer. If you like Chuck Palahnuik, you will like Ryu Murakami. HE WAS ALSO THE WRITER OF 'AUDITION' (a movie no one forgets after watching)

 

[greyscarf]

Grendel (forgot the author) is the Beowulf tale from the perspective of the monster, Grendel.

The author is John Gardner.

OT: Since you want contemporary fiction, there were a lot of great books that came out this year alone! (Then again I'm biased because I review books for my local paper.) I suggest:

Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander (a neurotic Jewish man living in upstate New York find Anne Frank is alive and well in his attic writing her next book.)

Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins (a collection of short stories that take place in the modern American West. Her style would really compliment Blood Meridian when you get around to it.)

Niceville by Carsten Stroud (a cross-genre (supernatural mystery, tech thriller, Southern Gothic) novel about a Southern town where malicious deeds flourish.)

Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series is far & away better than anything Steig Larssen ever wrote. The Snowman and The Leopard are two of the newer novels. (Phantom is the novel that came out this year, but it relies heavily on the previous books.) Also, I guess that this might not be quite what you're looking for since it's pretty genre-specific, but they are still a great series of books.

Outside of those, I agree that Virgin Suicides is fantastic. The Ice At the Bottom of the World by Mark Richard is another awesome short story collection about the South that came out awhile ago. And. . . and. . .and. . . I'm cutting this short now before I get carried away.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

"Literary fiction" is one of those terms that makes me balk, but I will go on ... Also contemporary fiction makes me realise that my reading tastes are pretty much from authors who have been dead 80+ years at least.

Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett; a highly enjoyable book once you withstand the initial suspension of disbelief.

The God of Small Things; a relatively recent classic that lives up to its hype, shocking in places but never dull.

... other than that my recommendations would all be SF or fantasy, or by long-dead people.

 

[Keoul]

You should read Jam
It's about an apocalypse, that's got jam in it.
Written by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw

 

[BreakfastMan]

Well, I quite like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Winter in the Blood, The Lord of the Flies, and House of Leaves. So... Read those, I guess.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Hi Escapist community, I want to set myself up a challenge for the new year. After years of reading mostly genre stories I want to expand my horizons beyond sci fi, horror and fantasy.

My plan is to spend the year reading literary fiction but I really don't know much about the field. I just don't know whats good or what would really fit my tastes so I'm looking for recommendations from you guys.

Author: Lois McMaster Bujold.
The Curse of Challion and Paladin of Souls (Nebula and Hugo award winning).
Also the Vorkosigan series, although the earlier books aren't up to her later (award winning) literary quality. Memories is from the middle of the series, but it also won both the Nebula and Hugo awards.

Lois McMaster Bujold has won more literary awards for Fantasy and Science Fiction than any living author, including Orson Scott Card (who I believe is in second place).

Anyway, that's my recommendation.

 

[Chris Mosher]

Well thanks for the recommendations so far guys.

Virgin Suicides seems to be a popular suggestion, along with House of leaves. Read Virgin Suicides back when the movie came out (I even still have the soundtrack)but his other books are supposed to be good as well so I may check them out. Grendel and If On a Winter's Night Tale a travel sound like fun.

Cerealnmuffin recommended Kobo Abe, for anyone who has not read this guy, you should check out either Woman in the Dunes or the short story collection Beyond the Curve. They are the type of stories that stick with you even a decade after you read them.

Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins (a collection of short stories that take place in the modern American West. Her style would really compliment Blood Meridian when you get around to it.)

Niceville by Carsten Stroud (a cross-genre (supernatural mystery, tech thriller, Southern Gothic) novel about a Southern town where malicious deeds flourish.)

These two books catch my eye, I don't know what it is but I have always enjoyed Southern Gothic has always appealed to me.

"Literary fiction" is one of those terms that makes me balk, but I will go on ... Also contemporary fiction makes me realise that my reading tastes are pretty much from authors who have been dead 80+ years at least.

Well, I whole heartily agree with you about the term literary fiction, it just seemed better then "none genre works that don't suck". Not that I have an issue with genre, I have been reading it for two decades, everything from Timothy Zahn to GRR Martin, Stephen King to China Meiville and PK Dick to HG Welles. I also have read a lot of the 80+ year old stuff as well. Love me some Shakespeare and Twain. I just want to expand my horizons and move outside of my comfort zone.

Oh, and for anyone who does like Sf, fantasy and the like, check out a publisher, ChiZine Press. They publish a lot of lesser know authors and different types of stories.

 

[McShizzle]

-snip-

I'm reading Drood by him which is really good if you like Charles Dickens. It is historical fiction, as told by his jealous friend Wilkie Collins (a largely forgotten writer of the time), about Charles Dickens change into a killer obsessed with the macabre.

House of Leaves by Charles Danielewski is one of the scariest books I have read. It is a haunted house story told from the perspectives of a man slowly going mad, diaries of a husband becoming obsessed with exploring the secret rooms of the house (that ever shift like a giant maze), and a blind video researcher's notes.

-snip-

Nice picks! Especially those two. Drood is a great read, I couldn't put that thing down. I would suggest reading The Terror by Dan Simmons as well, it's almost like a companion piece (they talk about it a little bit in Drood).

That Blood Meridian is a great book. Cormac McCarthy is always good, but he really told an epic of violence and depravity in the old west with that one (I had to shower after the end of that book ewww).

I'd have some other recommends,

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - hilarious

In the Name of the Rose, and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - he can really spin a good tale

Slapstick, and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - required reading

Life of Pi by Yann Martel - It's good, read it before seeing the movie

That's all I can think of just now :S

 

[mrblakemiller]

My favorite book is 1984 by George Orwell. I could say that book changed my life.

I also liked:

Lord of the Flies
Fahrenheit 451
Of Mice and Men
The Old Man and The Sea

Stuff that might not fit the list exactly:

American Psycho
Fight Club
The Stand

Also, if you haven't read the Bible from cover to cover, do so. You could read all of Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, Faulkner, Hemingway, Orwell, Joyce, Bronte, Austin, et al. and you'd still not deserve to call yourself "well-read" if you hadn't read the Bible, for obvious reasons.

 

[cerealnmuffin]

In the Name of the Rose, and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - he can really spin a good tale

Totally second that Umberto Eco. Foucault's Pendulum is easily in my top ten books. For those who haven't read it, it's about a group of scientists who put all conspiracy theories into a mega theory kind of as a joke, but then they attract all these fanatics and even start believing in it themselves.

I'm reading The Pesthouse by Joe Crace. I haven't finished it yet so I can't give a final verdict, but his writing is superb. The story is about America being in shambles and people traveling across country to travel to escape to Europe via ships. The rest of his library also looks really good.

Flatland by Abbott is a short, but fun read. It was written in the 19th century as a satire about the Victorian era. The main character is a square, yes a square, who visits 3d world and tries to tell 2d land about it but they think he is a heretic.

Also if you enjoy your mind being messed with then check out Borges. His short stories are more thought pieces than stories (like an endless library that people die and are born in), but they are a great argument to those who whine that there is nothing new in the storytelling medium.

For all House of Leaves fans, he is coming out with a new book. I'm hoping it is a bit more coherent than 'Only Revolutions' which made me feel stupid after not understanding it (even after following the suggestion to read only 7 pages of each story at a time), but I loved the ambitious concept.

 

[Chris Mosher]

In the Name of the Rose, and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - he can really spin a good tale

I love Foucault's Pendulum. For those who haven't read it, it's about a group of scientists who put all conspiracy theories into a mega theory kind of as a joke, but then they attract all these fanatics and even start believing in it themselves.

I loved Foucault's Pendulum. I have to admit that was a book that took me a long while to finish and more then one attempt to do so. Funny you guys should mention Eco, I was rummaging through my book boxes to see if I had anything else interesting and came across a copy of The Island of the day Before. Hopefully that will be as good.

 

[Pseudonym2]

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
He has a really original style and unique look at seldom discussed culture.

First you should reed White Noise. That is one of my all time favorite books.

 

[Shocksplicer]

I read A Visit From the Goon Squad for a Contemporary Literature course this semester.
It was good. Unbelievably depressing, but good.

Also, I know it's basically fantasy, but American Gods by Neil Gaiman is still one of the best books I've ever read.

 

[Vuliev]

The Gospel According to Biff is pretty excellent. Deals with Jesus's childhood friend Biff and the large gap in the Bible between Jesus as a child and when he shows up again as an adult.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Flatland by Abbott is a short, but fun read. [...]

It is definitely fun, and I did enjoy it. However, for that kind of fiction, where your perspective is completely blown apart, Gulliver's Travels is still the go-to book. The Lilliput section is the only one that people really recognise if they haven't read it, but it's so much more than that really.

If you want something totally different, how about reading something from the slave narratives genre? I would recommend The Life of Frederick Douglass and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl -- especially catch them in the Modern Library edition that has both. They're incredibly engaging and fascinating in that while the subject matter is often terrible, you can't bear to stop reading.

 

[BlueberryMUNCH]

F Scot Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, anyone?
For some reason I really loved it. Huh.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Kurt Vonnegut- everything, but cat's cradle, slaughterhouse-five, and breakfast of champions especially

Joseph Heller- Catch-22

Curzio Malaparte- Kaput (okay, it's not fiction, but it's got absolutely lovely prose, a great translation, and a fascinating story)