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Get Jiro!

Anthony Bourdain2012

5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster

More like it

Same sardonic register, still satire

1 more ↓

  • Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey

    Chuck Palahniuk

    Friends and enemies of a deceased patient zero describe his life through contradictory interviews. It covers rabies and time travel.

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Denser prose

Same sardonic register, still satire

3 more ↓

  • City of Saints and Madmen

    Jeff Vandermeer2001

    A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Dhalgren

    Samuel R. Delany1975

    An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Too Like the Lightning

    Ada Palmer2016

    In a 25th-century utopia, a convict narrates the discovery of a boy who can perform miracles. The prose uses 18th-century styles and gender terms.

    Same sardonic register

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Walking Disaster

    Jamie McGuire2013

    This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.

    sardonic → propulsive

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • Moneyball

    Michael Lewis2003

    The Oakland A's general manager uses statistical analysis to build a competitive baseball team on a budget. It follows the 2002 season.

    sardonic → wry

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • This Man

    Jodi Ellen Malpas2013

    An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.

    sardonic → tense

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Beelzebub's tales to his grandson

    Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950

    An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.

    sardonic → meditative

    pace-3·prose+3·bleak0

  • Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

    William S. Burroughs

    A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.

    Same sardonic register, still satire

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    sardonic → bleak, still dystopian

    pace-3·prose+3·bleak+2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • HARM

    Brian Aldiss2007

    A British Muslim man is detained and tortured in a secret prison. He hallucinates a second life on a distant planet to escape the pain.

    sardonic → bleak, still satire

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

    William S. Burroughs

    A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.

    Same sardonic register, still satire

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2

  • The Testament of Jessie Lamb

    Jane Rogers2011

    A teenager decides to volunteer for a medical program that will end her life to save humanity from a biological catastrophe.

    sardonic → earnest, still dystopian

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2