Rites of Passage

Crossing the River

Caryl Phillips1993

Four interconnected narratives follow the descendants of three children sold into slavery across different centuries and continents.

sardonic → elegiac, still historical fiction

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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.

Same sardonic register, still historical fiction

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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.

sardonic → playful

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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.

sardonic → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

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King of Pride

Ana Huang2023

A buttoned-up billionaire heir falls for an impulsive bartender while trying to secure a CEO position. They navigate a forbidden workplace romance.

sardonic → playful

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The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries

Emily Brightwell1993

A Victorian housekeeper and her staff secretly solve crimes for their employer, a clueless Scotland Yard inspector.

sardonic → playful

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Royally Screwed

Emma Chase2016

A crown prince visiting Manhattan pursues a bakery worker who threw a pie at him. The story follows their class-clash courtship.

sardonic → playful

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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.

Same sardonic register

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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.

sardonic → propulsive

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The Martian

Andy Weir2011

A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

sardonic → wry, still epistolary

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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.

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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.

sardonic → playful

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Lila

Marilynne Robinson2014

A woman with a traumatic, nomadic past settles in a small Iowa town and marries a minister. She struggles to reconcile her history with his faith.

sardonic → tender, still historical fiction

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The Known World

Edward P. Jones2003

A black man who was once a slave becomes a slave owner in antebellum Virginia. The story follows the fallout on the plantation after his death.

sardonic → meditative, still historical fiction

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A Long Long Way

Sebastian Barry2005

A young Irishman joins the British Army to fight in the trenches of World War I while his home country moves toward rebellion.

sardonic → elegiac, still historical fiction

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Brotherless Night

V. V. Ganeshananthan2023

A young woman in Sri Lanka tries to study medicine while her brothers join militant groups during the civil war. It covers a decade of conflict.

sardonic → elegiac, still historical fiction

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