There Are Rivers in the Sky

The Hours

Michael Cunningham1998

Three generations of women, including Virginia Woolf, are linked across time by the novel Mrs. Dalloway and their experiences with suicide.

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Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner1936

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

Same elegiac register, 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.

elegiac → sardonic, still historical fiction

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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

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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

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Fifty Shades of Grey

E.L. James2000

A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.

elegiac → earnest

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The Martian

Andy Weir2011

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

elegiac → wry

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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.

elegiac → sardonic

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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.

elegiac → propulsive

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The Martian

Andy Weir2011

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

elegiac → wry

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

elegiac → meditative, still historical fiction

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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.

Same elegiac 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.

elegiac → playful, still literary fiction

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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.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

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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.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

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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.

elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

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