After
According to Mark
Penelope Lively1984
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
The Mighty Red
Louise Erdrich2024
In a North Dakota town, a young woman enters a marriage of convenience while her mother and a local giant observe from the periphery.
Same wry register, still literary fiction
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace0prose+1bleak0
The Nice and the Good
Iris Murdoch1968
A civil servant investigates a colleague's suicide while navigating the romantic entanglements of an English estate.
wry → playful, still comedy of manners
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Still Here
Linda Grant2002
A middle-aged woman returns to Liverpool to care for her dying mother and begins an unexpected relationship with an American architect.
Same wry register, still literary fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
Rules of Civility
Amor Towles2011
A secretary navigates the social strata of 1938 New York City after a chance meeting. The story follows her year among the wealthy and ambitious.
Same wry register, still love triangle
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
The Old Devils
Kingsley Amis1986
A group of aging friends in Wales reunites when a famous couple returns home. They spend their days drinking and revisiting old resentments.
Same wry register, still love triangle
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
wry → playful, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner1915
The Bundren family travels by wagon to bury their matriarch. Fifteen different narrators describe the journey as the corpse decomposes.
wry → sardonic, still literary fiction
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Umbrella
Will Self2013
A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.
wry → clinical
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
In Search of Lost Time
Marcel Proust2001
A narrator examines his life through involuntary memories triggered by sensory experiences. It spans seven volumes of social observation.
wry → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Moby Dick
Herman Melville1851
A sailor joins a whaling voyage led by a captain seeking revenge on a specific whale. Large sections digress into the mechanics of 1850s whaling.
wry → meditative, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
Dial A for Aunties
Jesse Q. Sutanto2021
A photographer accidentally kills her blind date. Her mother and aunties help hide the body during a massive luxury wedding.
wry → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose0bleak+2
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
wry → tense
pace+2·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose0bleak+1
Candide
Voltaire
A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.
wry → sardonic
pace+2·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown2003
A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.
wry → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
Same wry register
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
wry → playful, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
Blackouts
Justin Torres2023
A young man cares for a dying elder in a medical facility. They use a 1930s study on homosexuality to reconstruct their personal histories.
wry → elegiac, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje1992
Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.
wry → elegiac, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Moby Dick
Herman Melville1851
A sailor joins a whaling voyage led by a captain seeking revenge on a specific whale. Large sections digress into the mechanics of 1850s whaling.
wry → meditative, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf1927
A family and their guests visit a house in the Hebrides. The narrative follows their internal thoughts over two days separated by ten years.
wry → elegiac, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Heavier
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
Girls Burn Brighter
Shobha Rao2018
Two girls in India are separated by a brutal act of violence. They endure trafficking and labor across continents to find each other.
wry → bleak, still literary fiction
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
The story of a brief marriage
Anuk Arudpragasam2016
Two refugees enter an arranged marriage in a Sri Lankan camp during the final days of the civil war. It focuses on the physical details of survival.
wry → meditative, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
A Distant Shore
Caryl Phillips2003
A retired teacher and an African refugee form a quiet bond in a xenophobic English village. Their past traumas emerge through alternating stories.
wry → bleak, still literary fiction
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara2015
Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.
wry → bleak, still literary fiction
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead2019
A studious black teenager in 1960s Florida is sent to a brutal reform school where physical abuse is systemic.
wry → elegiac, still literary fiction
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
