LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Flamethrowers

Rachel Kushner2013

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Sixty Lights

    Gail Jones2004

    Lucy Strange grows up in the late 1800s and discovers the new technology of photography. The story follows her from Australia to London and India.

    sardonic → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

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

    sardonic → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Year zero

    Reid, Robert2012

    Aliens discover that Earth's music is the best in the galaxy and they owe humanity trillions in copyright fines.

    sardonic → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Speaking for Myself: Faith, Freedom, and the Fight of Our Lives Inside the Trump White House

    Sarah Huckabee Sanders

    The former Press Secretary recounts her time in the Trump administration. She describes daily operations and her defense of the president's policies.

    sardonic → earnest

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Redshirts

    John Scalzi2012

    Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.

    sardonic → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

    Same sardonic register

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • 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

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    sardonic → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Rhine Journey

    Ann Schlee1981

    A middle-aged woman travels by steamer down the Rhine in 1851. She observes her family and internalizes a chance encounter with a man from her past.

    sardonic → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • Gathering the Water

    Robert Edric2006

    In 1840s Yorkshire, a man oversees the flooding of a valley for a reservoir. He records the final days of a village and its remaining residents.

    sardonic → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • 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, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Prophets

    Robert Jones Jr.2021

    Two enslaved men on a Mississippi plantation find refuge in their love for each other. Their relationship is threatened by a betrayal.

    sardonic → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Deposition of Father McGreevy

    Brian O'Doherty2000

    A priest recounts the physical and moral decline of an isolated Irish village during a harsh winter in the 1940s.

    sardonic → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    sardonic → bleak, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+1