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After

Musashi

Eiji Yoshikawa1936

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same meditative register, still historical fiction

1 more ↓

  • Some Luck

    Jane Smiley2014

    An Iowa farm family lives through thirty years of economic and social change starting in 1920. Each chapter covers a single year of their lives.

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    meditative → sardonic, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+2·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.

    meditative → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    meditative → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

meditative → earnest

3 more ↓

  • Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable (Tim Grover Winning Series)

    Tim S. Grover

    A personal trainer for elite athletes describes the mental discipline and aggressive mindset required to achieve professional dominance.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership

    Bill Walsh

    The former San Francisco 49ers coach outlines his management principles. He focuses on process, standard of performance, and organizational detail.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·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.

    meditative → sardonic

    pace+2·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.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    meditative → wry

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

meditative → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    meditative → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    meditative → clinical

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

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

    meditative → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Heavier

meditative → bleak, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same meditative register, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • A Long Long Way

    Sebastian Barry2005

    A young Irishman joins the British Army to fight in the trenches of World War I while his home country moves toward rebellion.

    meditative → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Brotherless Night

    V. V. Ganeshananthan2023

    A young woman in Sri Lanka tries to study medicine while her brothers join militant groups during the civil war. It covers a decade of conflict.

    meditative → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2