After
Dial A for Aunties
Jesse Q. Sutanto2021
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
4 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from, nothing faster
More like it
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Full speed
Janet Evanovich2003
A newspaper publisher and a millionaire pose as a married couple to investigate a corrupt minister and a mob syndicate.
Same playful register, still cozy
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Tell Me Lies
Jennifer Crusie1998
After finding evidence of her husband's infidelity, Maddie finds him dead and becomes a suspect in a small town full of gossip.
playful → wry, still cozy
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Rich People Problems
Kevin Kwan2017
An extended family gathers in Singapore as their matriarch lies dying. They scheme against one another to inherit a massive estate.
Same playful register
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Someday, Someday, Maybe
Lauren Graham2013
A young actress in 1990s New York City gives herself a three-year deadline to find professional success before her money runs out.
Same playful register
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak0
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
Kelly Harms2019
An overworked single mother takes a summer break in New York City for a makeover and a dating life. She rediscovers her identity apart from her kids.
Same playful register
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
playful → sardonic
- pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+3bleak+2
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon1973
During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+3bleak+3
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Marlon James2014
A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.
playful → propulsive
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+3
- pace-3prose+3bleak+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.
Same playful register
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak+2
Briefing for a Descent into Hell
Doris Lessing1971
A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
Slower
- pace-3prose+3bleak+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.
Same playful register
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-3prose+3bleak+3
Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner1936
The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.
playful → elegiac
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+3bleak+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.
playful → clinical
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+2
- pace-3prose+3bleak+3
Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
playful → bleak
pace-3·prose+3·bleak+3
- pace-3prose+2bleak+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.
playful → elegiac
pace-3·prose+2·bleak+2
Heavier
playful → bleak
- pace-2prose+3bleak+3
The Road
Cormac McCarthy2006
A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead2016
Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood2003
A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.
playful → sardonic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut1969
Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time, experiencing his life out of order, from his chaplaincy in WWII to his abduction by aliens.
playful → sardonic
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
