Plotpoint Charlie
January 29, 2010 5:54 AM Subscribe
Yet another book question. What is the best pageturner ever written? By which I mean: which book has the best plot ever? I'm talking rich, umamilike honest to goodness intricate but easily absorbable plotting. I'm talking stuff worthy of "The Count of Monte Cristo" (which has the best plot in history easily).
Please don't jump into this thread to tell me that Shakespeare plotted well, because I don't want to hear it. I want escapistic, "unputdownable" fun. I want the book that makes the book flap blurbs come true. Thrillers, revenge fantasies, spy novels, action, adventure. Okay: go!
Please don't jump into this thread to tell me that Shakespeare plotted well, because I don't want to hear it. I want escapistic, "unputdownable" fun. I want the book that makes the book flap blurbs come true. Thrillers, revenge fantasies, spy novels, action, adventure. Okay: go!
This post was deleted for the following reason: this is chatfilter. -- jessamyn
Didn't you just answer your own question?
posted by proj at 6:06 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by proj at 6:06 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Didn't you just answer your own question?
lol, yes, a bit (my enthusiasm runs off with me when I think how good that plot was: the "Milennium Trilogy" owes at least half its success to Dumas' plot)
posted by NekulturnY at 6:08 AM on January 29, 2010
lol, yes, a bit (my enthusiasm runs off with me when I think how good that plot was: the "Milennium Trilogy" owes at least half its success to Dumas' plot)
posted by NekulturnY at 6:08 AM on January 29, 2010
"Pure escapist fun" and "best plot ever" do not, to me, necessarily mean the same thing.
I'm not fully caffeinated yet, so I'm going to avoid tangling with "best plot ever" and go with "pure escapist fun," and in that category, I enjoy pretty much anything written by Lee Child or Thomas Perry. Whenever I acquire a new book by either of them, I try to make sure I don't start it at or near bedtime, or I'll be up all night finishing it.
posted by rtha at 6:12 AM on January 29, 2010
I'm not fully caffeinated yet, so I'm going to avoid tangling with "best plot ever" and go with "pure escapist fun," and in that category, I enjoy pretty much anything written by Lee Child or Thomas Perry. Whenever I acquire a new book by either of them, I try to make sure I don't start it at or near bedtime, or I'll be up all night finishing it.
posted by rtha at 6:12 AM on January 29, 2010
Seconding The Godfather. Also, I'd suggest Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
posted by LittleKnitting at 6:16 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by LittleKnitting at 6:16 AM on January 29, 2010
Ah, also: two guilty pleasures of mine for a long time were Ann Rice and Tom Clancy.
posted by jquinby at 6:18 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by jquinby at 6:18 AM on January 29, 2010
Response by poster: The Bible.
Most stories in the Bible are terribly plotted. Except maybe the story of Joseph with his coat who becomes the vice-Pharaoh (note the resemblence to "Monte Cristo"). But really, stories in the Bible feature way too many deus ex machina to be enjoyable.
posted by NekulturnY at 6:20 AM on January 29, 2010
Most stories in the Bible are terribly plotted. Except maybe the story of Joseph with his coat who becomes the vice-Pharaoh (note the resemblence to "Monte Cristo"). But really, stories in the Bible feature way too many deus ex machina to be enjoyable.
posted by NekulturnY at 6:20 AM on January 29, 2010
Les Miserables.
posted by hermitosis at 6:21 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by hermitosis at 6:21 AM on January 29, 2010
Ummm. I'm going to go with Kafka on the Shore. Yes, Kafka on the Shore is the Best Pageturner Ever Written.
posted by Wayman Tisdale at 6:25 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by Wayman Tisdale at 6:25 AM on January 29, 2010
Raymond Chandler does it for me.
posted by jannw at 6:30 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by jannw at 6:30 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
also Iain M Banks
posted by jannw at 6:30 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by jannw at 6:30 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Arturo Pérez-Reverte writes clever, literate page-turners and historical adventure novels. I'd start with The Fencing Master or The Flanders Panel.
posted by permafrost at 6:30 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by permafrost at 6:30 AM on January 29, 2010
Another vote for Les Misérables. I have particularly liked Charles Wilbur's translation (and the abridgement, if you must, by Paul Bénichou).
posted by librarina at 6:31 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by librarina at 6:31 AM on January 29, 2010
Very funny, Wayman Tisdale
I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Haruki Murakami's weird, unresolved plotlines but just plain love the atmosphere he creates, so I was absolutely hooked to David Mitchell's Number 9 Dream, which is kind of like a Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that doesn't leave you banging your head against the wall for the last few chapters. The plot is basically a picaresque involving a lost father, a love story, and lots of ultraviolent Yakuza.
posted by oinopaponton at 6:38 AM on January 29, 2010
I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Haruki Murakami's weird, unresolved plotlines but just plain love the atmosphere he creates, so I was absolutely hooked to David Mitchell's Number 9 Dream, which is kind of like a Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that doesn't leave you banging your head against the wall for the last few chapters. The plot is basically a picaresque involving a lost father, a love story, and lots of ultraviolent Yakuza.
posted by oinopaponton at 6:38 AM on January 29, 2010
Chandler is wonderful, but he barely has plots at all, much less multi-layered one.
P.G.Wodehouse, another ex-Dulwich college boy, has intricate, killer plots, Code of the Woosters being widely considered his best.
Possibly too short? Pillars of the Earth might suit.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:41 AM on January 29, 2010
P.G.Wodehouse, another ex-Dulwich college boy, has intricate, killer plots, Code of the Woosters being widely considered his best.
Possibly too short? Pillars of the Earth might suit.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:41 AM on January 29, 2010
Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.
posted by fuse theorem at 6:42 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by fuse theorem at 6:42 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Don Quixote. It depends on the translation; I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the translation stocked at my backwater public library where as a teenager I found the book to be a page-turning laugh riot.
I also really liked Atonement, but then the movie went and spoiled everything.
posted by motsque at 6:42 AM on January 29, 2010
I also really liked Atonement, but then the movie went and spoiled everything.
posted by motsque at 6:42 AM on January 29, 2010
I thought Red Harvest was pretty un-putdownable. Actually, that goes for The Glass Key and a lot of other Hammett novels. Red Harvest has the added bonus of the best first paragraph in the history of fiction, though.
In a similar vein, I'll second Raymond Chandler, already mentioned upthread.
posted by willpie at 6:51 AM on January 29, 2010
In a similar vein, I'll second Raymond Chandler, already mentioned upthread.
posted by willpie at 6:51 AM on January 29, 2010
Isn't this question incredibly subjective chatfilter. It seems like there is no good way to answer it.
Interesting discussion, but not appropriate for askme.
posted by BobbyDigital at 6:51 AM on January 29, 2010
Interesting discussion, but not appropriate for askme.
posted by BobbyDigital at 6:51 AM on January 29, 2010
Response by poster: Indigo: agree about Wodehouse (although he only ever devised one plot, he milked it for all it was worth). I read Quixote. Not much of an overarching plot really, it's more a loose collection of sketches or novella's. I think real plotting only really took off in the UK with 'Tom Jones', 'Robinson Crusoe' and Jane Austen.
posted by NekulturnY at 6:52 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by NekulturnY at 6:52 AM on January 29, 2010
Seconding And Then There Were None.
Also, vintage Stephen King is great for this--The Shining, 'Salem's Lot, The Stand, etc.
posted by PunkSoTawny at 7:01 AM on January 29, 2010
Also, vintage Stephen King is great for this--The Shining, 'Salem's Lot, The Stand, etc.
posted by PunkSoTawny at 7:01 AM on January 29, 2010
Everybody Poops
posted by bunny hugger at 7:03 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by bunny hugger at 7:03 AM on January 29, 2010
The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester, is the page-turner you seek. (Which is supposedly a remake of sorts of Dumas' Man in the Iron Mask.)
posted by Bron at 7:09 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Bron at 7:09 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
oops, actually steals the plot from Count of Monte Cristo, which you mentioned. But still a great book.
posted by Bron at 7:15 AM on January 29, 2010
posted by Bron at 7:15 AM on January 29, 2010
Another vote for The Godfather here. I don't think it's great literature, but it is a fun read and fits the bill.
posted by etc. at 7:18 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by etc. at 7:18 AM on January 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Sounds like you're looking for books that are strong on suspense.
Nothing gripped me like the very first time I read The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. It's a horror novel, yes, but grippingly told. It frightens you into not putting the book down because you just have to know what happens next.
Not a novel but a short story: The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell.
posted by magstheaxe at 7:22 AM on January 29, 2010
Nothing gripped me like the very first time I read The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. It's a horror novel, yes, but grippingly told. It frightens you into not putting the book down because you just have to know what happens next.
Not a novel but a short story: The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell.
posted by magstheaxe at 7:22 AM on January 29, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jquinby at 5:58 AM on January 29, 2010