LitQueuelitqueue

After

A Disaffection

James Kelman1989

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Glass Hotel

    Emily St. John Mandel2020

    A massive Ponzi scheme collapses, affecting a bartender, a financier, and a shipping executive. The story jumps across decades and locations.

    sardonic → dreamlike, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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

  • 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

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    sardonic → propulsive

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • 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

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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

    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 ↓

  • Orbital

    Samantha Harvey2024

    Six astronauts orbit Earth over twenty-four hours. The narrative focuses on their routine tasks and observations of the planet below.

    sardonic → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • The Waters of Kronos

    Conrad Richter1960

    An elderly man travels back in time to his childhood Pennsylvania town, which in his present day is submerged beneath a reservoir.

    sardonic → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • The story of a brief marriage

    Anuk Arudpragasam2016

    Two refugees enter an arranged marriage in a Sri Lankan camp during the final days of the civil war. It focuses on the physical details of survival.

    sardonic → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • A Distant Shore

    Caryl Phillips2003

    A retired teacher and an African refugee form a quiet bond in a xenophobic English village. Their past traumas emerge through alternating stories.

    sardonic → bleak, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • A Little Life

    Hanya Yanagihara2015

    Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.

    sardonic → bleak, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Nickel Boys

    Colson Whitehead2019

    A studious black teenager in 1960s Florida is sent to a brutal reform school where physical abuse is systemic.

    sardonic → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1