LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Keepers of the House

Shirley Ann Grau1964

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Wandering Stars

    Tommy Orange2024

    A generational saga following a Cheyenne family from the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre to modern-day Oakland.

    Same elegiac register, still generational saga

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Denser prose

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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+1·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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    elegiac → dreamlike

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To recover

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  • Talking to GOATs: The Moments You Remember and the Stories You Never Heard

    Jim Gray

    A sports broadcaster recounts his interviews and interactions with famous athletes. He provides behind-the-scenes anecdotes from his career.

    elegiac → earnest

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television

    Al Michaels

    A veteran broadcaster recounts his fifty-year career in sports television. He provides behind-the-scenes anecdotes of major games and colleagues.

    elegiac → warm

    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.

    elegiac → 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.

    elegiac → sardonic

    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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    elegiac → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → clinical

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

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

    elegiac → bleak

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • History of the Rain

    Niall Williams2014

    A bedridden girl in Ireland tells the story of her family and her father's obsession with finding a specific book. It is a history of a lineage.

    Same elegiac register, still family saga

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Heavier

Same elegiac register, still southern gothic

3 more ↓

  • The Lives of Others

    Neel Mukherjee2014

    A multi-generational family in 1960s Calcutta disintegrates while one grandson joins a violent Maoist insurgency. It tracks the family's collapse.

    elegiac → bleak, still family saga

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • I'll Go to Bed at Noon

    Gerard Woodward2004

    The Jones family spends a decade succumbing to alcoholism. The book tracks their physical and social disintegration in 1970s Britain.

    elegiac → bleak, still family saga

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Bastard Out of Carolina

    Dorothy Allison1995

    A young girl grows up in poverty in 1950s South Carolina. She endures physical and sexual abuse from her stepfather while her mother looks away.

    elegiac → bleak, still southern gothic

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1