Can you recommend a novel that's both gripping and meaningful?

December 19, 2017 12:49 AM

Gripping because the internet has done a number on my attention span. Meaningful because I have Trump Related Affective Disorder and need hearty/substantial new thoughts in my brain. I like: detectives and people who are on mad quests, books where people care about things and each other, oddness/surrealness, good stylists, rollicking epics, relative ease of comprehension, really good YA.

(Dealbreakers include cruelty, nihilism, realistic stories about unhappy upper middle class Americans, and books that ask a ton of great focused attention.)

Some fiction that I really liked: The City and the City by China Mieville, The Abortion by Richard Brautigan, Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler, The Death of Speedy by Jaime Hernandez, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, Checker and the Derailleurs by Lionel Shriver, Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders, Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, most of Roald Dahl and Daniel Pinkwater and Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Thanks AskMe!

posted by hungrytiger to Media & Arts (30 answers total)

Tana French and Denise Mina are Irish and Scottish, respectively, writers of detective stories which of course include unhappy people but which are not nihilistic. I recommend all of both.

Also consider Robertson Davies, a Canadian novelist. His books are fondly indulgent of the foibles of man and his characters are quaint and passionate. I love his work and I would say start with The Rebel Angels.

Richard Powers. I think you might really enjoy The Echo Maker, and I think Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance is close to perfect.
posted by janey47 at 1:19 AM on December 19, 2017

I think one of Dorothy Sayers’ Peter Wimsey books might work for this: Gaudy Night, which is about detectives who care about each other but is also deeper and richer than the other Wimsey novels, which are very light. It’s both thought-provoking and comforting, which is a rare thing in fiction.
posted by Aravis76 at 2:25 AM on December 19, 2017

I just read Douglas Adams's Last Chance to See. It's non-fiction, but he's questing around with a team of zoologists, trying to spot some critically endangered species before they go kaput altogether. The zoologists really care about the animals, and due to Adams's hilarious and touching prose, you will too. There's a lot of oddness, not least because Adams is often extremely jetlagged, and sometimes in unbelievably distant worlds, like Beijing c. 1988 (oh, how much it has changed), or the fjordy parts of New Zealand.

I think you'll like it!
posted by batter_my_heart at 2:33 AM on December 19, 2017

+1 for Robertson Davies
What about Mark Helprin's Winters Tale - I think that would tick quite a lot of the boxes
posted by crocomancer at 2:34 AM on December 19, 2017

Donna Tart The Goldfinch.
Ticks off your list: Gripping, mad quests, books where people care about things and each other, good stylists, rollicking epics, relative ease of comprehension. Not surreal, but definitely more than a touch of odd. And mystery in the various plot lines.
posted by velveeta underground at 2:55 AM on December 19, 2017

For YA, Jonathan Stroud might suit you.
There's the Bartimaeus books & the Lockwood series.

Hard not to enjoy these!
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 2:56 AM on December 19, 2017

I enjoy an undemanding page-turner but I am also easily irritated by clunky prose and wooden characters. Books which fit my mental category of ‘superior genre fiction’ include:

The Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O’Brien, set in the Royal Navy initially during the Napoleonic War, qualify as a rollicking epic.

I’ve been enjoying Lindsay Davies’ Falco novels, which are sort-of detective novels set in Ancient Rome.

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga, which is SF.

Diana Wynne-Jones, maybe start with the Chrestomanci books.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 3:03 AM on December 19, 2017

At the more literary end of the scale, you could try The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Or if you fancy a big, fat C19th novel you can wallow in, The Maias by José María Eça de Queirós was one I enjoyed.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 3:10 AM on December 19, 2017

I recently finished Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which ticks a number of your boxes - totally gripping page-turner of a rollicking epic, includes mad quests, plenty of oddness, lots & lots of people who care very deeply. I can't recommend it highly enough.
posted by rd45 at 3:23 AM on December 19, 2017

Roberto Bolano, The Savage Detectives. It has people on mad quests but not detectives.
posted by thelonius at 3:39 AM on December 19, 2017

The Man in the Tree by Sage Walker, which I came across by chance in a bookstore and fell in love with. It's a murder mystery set on a generation ship before the ship actually leaves Earth; the mystery is well worked out and gripping, the setting is exquisitely well thought through and fascinating, and the characters are people you actually like and care about and want to spend more time with.
posted by huimangm at 4:08 AM on December 19, 2017

For surreal and detectives together in one place, check out Jonathan Lethem's books, starting with Gun with Occasional Music.
posted by duoshao at 4:32 AM on December 19, 2017

I think you might enjoy The Readymade Thief by Augustus Rose. It has mystery, puzzles, urban excavation, surrealist aspects, and interesting and likeable characters. I learned about it when flipping through a fashion magazine in a waiting room, and it turned out to be a great find!

I have tried a few Zadie Smith books and they never stuck, but I finished Swing Time and I loved it very much and believe you might as well.

I will always nth The Goldfinch.

And also the Tana French books are really very good without being gruesome. So so so great.

Really good YA - Eleanor and Park!
posted by danabanana at 4:35 AM on December 19, 2017

The entire Chocolat series. Do not miss these.
posted by flabdablet at 4:55 AM on December 19, 2017

If you liked The City and the City, I think Perdido Street Station checks all of your above boxes even harder.
posted by dr. boludo at 5:16 AM on December 19, 2017

Connie Willis' books are mad quest epics that involve the surreal and detective work and people who care about each other and things, especially her Historians time travel books. Check out To Say Nothing of the Dog (Victorian comedy time travel mystery), Doomsday Book (Medieval tragedy time travel mystery), or Blackout/All Clear (WWII two volume time travel mystery).
posted by hydropsyche at 5:28 AM on December 19, 2017

Surreal and gripping would describe House of Leaves. Focus on one storyline at a time - the house mystery is the best bit but the meta-narrative is also worth a read.
posted by giraffeneckbattle at 5:30 AM on December 19, 2017

Phillip Pullman has a new trilogy that's a companion to the Dark Materials books. The first volume, La Belle Sauvage, came out a few months ago. It's set 10 years before The Golden Compass.
posted by amarynth at 5:53 AM on December 19, 2017

I also have trouble making myself ignore the internet and read lately. The Ocean at the End of the Lane really got my attention. You might look at Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, and everything by Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler.

Graphic novels can be good if you need something with a little extra zap to hold your attention. Fun Home, Persepolis, Digger and Nimona are some of my favorites.

Also, short stories. I got the 2016 Best American Short Stories for a lot more than the current price on the linked listing, and I do not regret it.
posted by bunderful at 5:55 AM on December 19, 2017

Gary Shteyngart's work, especially Super Sad True Love Story.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:09 AM on December 19, 2017

A couple of outside-the-box non-fiction recommendations:

Endurance: Shackletons's Incredible Voyage.
Written in 1959. I was genuinely surprised at what a gripping, page-turning book it was. Rarely has a book seemed to transport me to another time and place. It's an incredible story (right in the title!) of the human spirit, team work, and hope when all seems lost.

The Orchid Thief is much different than Endurance, but is one of my favorite books. Passages and quotes from this book pop into my head on a regular basis. It's famous for being the basis for the fantastic film Adaptation. It's kind of a true-crime story (the crime being alleged orchid thievery) but the main story serves as a launching off point for Susan Orlean's meditations about obsession, beauty, passion, and why we do what we do.

(To be clear, these are not novels, but read like novels.)
posted by The Deej at 7:05 AM on December 19, 2017

It's not going to win any awards for ease of comprehension, but if you enjoyed Vineland then it might be worth picking up Mason & Dixon, also by Thomas Pynchon. I read it this year and it's one of the best novels I've read in years.

It's definitely a mad epic of the rollicking quest variety -- but it's also a full-throated condemnation of slavery and colonialism, a parodic but weirdly accurate social history, and (this is unique in Pynchon) a touching, sensitively written tale of friendship.

It foregrounds a warmth and humanity in his writing, the care he has for even his minor characters, that's often obscured or lost in his other novels. I really loved it. I'd say it's worth a chance at least -- I was hooked from the first page, but it's the letters between the astronomers in Chapter 2 that really showed the qualities I'm talking about.
posted by Ted Maul at 7:14 AM on December 19, 2017

I found Homegoing to be incredibly gripping. You might also dig The Unseen World for a quest and a loving family of geniuses, and Exit West for a surreal situation with lovely prose (although it is also about refugees and may be too sad for your current purposes).

Also if you haven't yet read Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America, it's just the best. I have a winter tradition of rereading it aloud with my partner. I'm also adding a winter tradition of reading Moominland Midwinter under a lot of blankets, and I would highly recommend any of the Moomin books as an escapist younger-level YA read about Scandinavian trolls who love each other and life.
posted by torridly at 7:19 AM on December 19, 2017

Have you read Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo yet?
posted by kapers at 8:36 AM on December 19, 2017

This is my second time in five minutes recommending Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore in an ask me... It is really good YA with detectives (kind of), mad quests, oddness, and people caring about each other. It's very hard to describe, but it is multi-genre, almost a choose-your-own-adventure book and I love it.
posted by tangosnail at 10:04 AM on December 19, 2017

You might enjoy The Bref History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
posted by RichardHenryYarbo at 3:40 PM on December 19, 2017

Connie Willis is all of these and more! Passage was my favorite book I read this year.
posted by fairlynearlyready at 8:53 PM on December 19, 2017

Thank you for all these great suggestions! My library queue is long now and I appreciate it a lot. Hibernation with a pile of books, here I come!
posted by hungrytiger at 7:00 PM on December 20, 2017

I can't recommend The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas enough.
posted by nicebookrack at 11:46 AM on December 21, 2017

I read a lot of science fiction and cold war spy thrilers, but I couldn't put down A Gentleman in Moscow. I felt quite immersed in that world.
posted by mecran01 at 9:39 PM on December 24, 2017