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After

Olive Kitteridge

Elizabeth Strout2008

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same meditative register, still domestic fiction

1 more ↓

  • Breathing Lessons

    Anne Tyler1988

    A middle-aged couple takes a day-long car trip to a funeral, bickering and reflecting on their decades of marriage.

    meditative → warm, still domestic fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

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

  • The Sound and the Fury

    William Faulkner1929

    The decline of a Southern family told through four perspectives, including a non-linear stream of consciousness from a man with a disability.

    meditative → elegiac

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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

3 more ↓

  • Sundays at Tiffany's

    James Patterson2008

    A lonely woman is reunited with her childhood imaginary friend, who has returned to her life as a physical man.

    meditative → warm

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Flip This Zombie

    Jesse Petersen2011

    A married couple runs a zombie extermination and 'flipping' business. They treat the apocalypse as a series of domestic and financial hurdles.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Unidentified Redhead

    Alice Clayton2013

    A 33-year-old actress returns to LA and begins a secret relationship with a younger, famous leading man. It follows their career and dating hurdles.

    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

3 more ↓

  • Holiday

    Stanley Middleton1974

    A schoolteacher stays at a seaside resort to evaluate his failing marriage through quiet observation and memory.

    Same meditative register, still domestic 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.

    meditative → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

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

    meditative → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    meditative → bleak, still domestic fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • The Road

    Cormac McCarthy2006

    A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.

    meditative → bleak

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • The Underground Railroad

    Colson Whitehead2016

    Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.

    meditative → bleak

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2