LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Echo of Old Books

Barbara Davis2023

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Shoemaker's Wife

    Adriana Trigiani2012

    Two Italian teenagers meet in the Alps, are separated by circumstance, and eventually cross paths again as immigrants in early 20th-century New York.

    Same tender register, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

tender → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tender → propulsive, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+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.

    tender → sardonic, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Tangled Up In You

    Rachel Gibson2007

    A woman returns to her hometown to investigate a family scandal. She falls for the son of the man who caused her family's ruin.

    tender → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • There's Something About Christmas

    Debbie Macomber2005

    A journalist travels across Washington with a cynical pilot to interview fruitcake recipe finalists. They fly to small towns during the holidays.

    tender → warm

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Rock the Heart

    Michelle A. Valentine2013

    A marketing intern must secure a contract with her rock star ex-boyfriend during his concert tour.

    tender → warm

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tender → sardonic

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • 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.

    tender → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    tender → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

tender → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak+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.

    tender → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    Same tender register, still historical fiction

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • A Fine Balance

    Rohinton Mistry1995

    Four people from different castes share a small apartment during the 1975 Indian Emergency. Their lives are upended by state-sanctioned violence.

    tender → bleak, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Confessions of Nat Turner

    William Styron1967

    A fictionalized confession of the leader of an 1831 slave revolt while he awaits execution in a Virginia jail cell.

    tender → bleak, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    tender → meditative, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2