Not Who Done Its
December 17, 2020 1:33 PM Subscribe
Help me find mysterious novels not mysteries.
Looking to read novels with a mysterious feel to them. Does not have to be crime oriented or science fiction. Hidden, ambiguous, plot is not linear. A good example is Murakami's Killing Commendatore. Maybe books that push the unanswerable mysteries of life to the edge.
Looking forward to your suggestions.
Looking to read novels with a mysterious feel to them. Does not have to be crime oriented or science fiction. Hidden, ambiguous, plot is not linear. A good example is Murakami's Killing Commendatore. Maybe books that push the unanswerable mysteries of life to the edge.
Looking forward to your suggestions.
An Instance of the Fingerpost. Someone is dead, and it appears to be a whodunit, but it's ultimately much more than that.
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:45 PM on December 17, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 1:45 PM on December 17, 2020 [5 favorites]
Without revealing too much, In The Woods by Tana French sounds like a match for this. It has Mystery elements, but I tend not to recommend it to folks looking for a Mystery.
posted by Ideal Impulse at 1:48 PM on December 17, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by Ideal Impulse at 1:48 PM on December 17, 2020 [5 favorites]
Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant were both similar to Murakami structure-wise but less oddball.
Cloud Atlas was a bit like reading the layers of an onion.
posted by mattamatic at 1:53 PM on December 17, 2020 [5 favorites]
Cloud Atlas was a bit like reading the layers of an onion.
posted by mattamatic at 1:53 PM on December 17, 2020 [5 favorites]
Michel Faber's The Book of Strange New Things, which I learned about here, I think. Beautiful, odd, and very much about "the unanswerable mysteries of life."
posted by neroli at 1:58 PM on December 17, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by neroli at 1:58 PM on December 17, 2020 [3 favorites]
Arkady & Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic if you're in the mood for something short and science fictional. Roberto Bolaño's 2666 if you're in the mood for something long and literary. Both are darkly enigmatic.
posted by Wobbuffet at 1:58 PM on December 17, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Wobbuffet at 1:58 PM on December 17, 2020 [3 favorites]
Foucault's Pendulum seems like it might work here.
posted by saladin at 2:08 PM on December 17, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by saladin at 2:08 PM on December 17, 2020 [2 favorites]
Oh gosh, the creepy and compelling Southern Reach trilogy. Something is going on, it's super unclear what. You get little bits of it, unreliable narration, but there's a story there, but WHAT IS IT?
posted by jessamyn at 2:16 PM on December 17, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 2:16 PM on December 17, 2020 [10 favorites]
If you haven’t watched the movie adaptation on Netflix, I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid is enigmatic, surreal, and a brisk read.
posted by ejs at 2:27 PM on December 17, 2020
posted by ejs at 2:27 PM on December 17, 2020
Best answer: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is absolutely what you want.
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 2:27 PM on December 17, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 2:27 PM on December 17, 2020 [7 favorites]
House of Leaves, may be too mysterious, in that you kind of feel a little bit insane sometimes while reading.
posted by th3ph17 at 2:33 PM on December 17, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by th3ph17 at 2:33 PM on December 17, 2020 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Have read a few of your suggestions. In particular, Piranesi, is a great example of the type of book I am looking for.
posted by Xurando at 2:44 PM on December 17, 2020
posted by Xurando at 2:44 PM on December 17, 2020
Light Boxes by Shane Jones, where one little town is beset upon by a perpetual February
posted by rhapsodie at 3:11 PM on December 17, 2020
posted by rhapsodie at 3:11 PM on December 17, 2020
The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies. Maybe also some of his other works.
posted by SemiSalt at 3:22 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by SemiSalt at 3:22 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Sadie Jones, The Uninvited Guests:
One late spring evening in 1912, in the kitchens at Sterne, preparations begin for an elegant supper party in honor of Emerald Torrington's twentieth birthday. But only a few miles away, a dreadful accident propels a crowd of mysterious and not altogether savory survivors to seek shelter at the ramshackle manor—and the household is thrown into confusion and mischief.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:07 PM on December 17, 2020
One late spring evening in 1912, in the kitchens at Sterne, preparations begin for an elegant supper party in honor of Emerald Torrington's twentieth birthday. But only a few miles away, a dreadful accident propels a crowd of mysterious and not altogether savory survivors to seek shelter at the ramshackle manor—and the household is thrown into confusion and mischief.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:07 PM on December 17, 2020
This Census Taker by China Mieville would be my suggestion.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:30 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:30 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Not sure that it really touches on the "unanswerable mysteries of life", but your question called The Crying of Lot 49 to my mind.
posted by lex mercatoria at 5:39 PM on December 17, 2020
posted by lex mercatoria at 5:39 PM on December 17, 2020
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:11 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:11 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Mystery writer Ruth Rendell published more off-kilter books as Barbara Vine. I'd start with A Dark-Adapted Eye. It starts with an execution, and follows a narrator revisiting family secrets, or at least the sort of family who doesn't speak about anything. It loops around a lot, chronologically and topically, and rewards re-reading.
posted by mersen at 6:36 PM on December 17, 2020
posted by mersen at 6:36 PM on December 17, 2020
What a great question.
The Taiga Syndrome
Some of the stories in Her Body and Other Parties
The Savage Detectives
A lot of Stanislaw Lem
posted by latkes at 6:39 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
The Taiga Syndrome
Some of the stories in Her Body and Other Parties
The Savage Detectives
A lot of Stanislaw Lem
posted by latkes at 6:39 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
latkes' suggestions are excellent. Lem's Tales of Pirx the Pilot are light stories of mysteries that come clear in the end; his novels Fiasco and His Master's Voice are gloomy and ambiguous.
In a similar vein to Lem's Pirx the Pilot, Karel Čapek wrote multiple books of mystery stories with a philosophical bent (Tales from Two Pockets, Apocryphal Tales).
Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is hilarious and head-scratching in equal measure (at least until you figure out what he's doing).
Muriel Spark's novels (e.g. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) tend to reveal the central events right away, but take their time with why things turned out as they did, and make you work for a psychological explanation. Likewise, I have always found Isak Dinesen's highly mannered stories, and the motives of her characters, opaque in a stimulating way.
I'm following this thread with interest!
posted by aws17576 at 8:22 PM on December 17, 2020
In a similar vein to Lem's Pirx the Pilot, Karel Čapek wrote multiple books of mystery stories with a philosophical bent (Tales from Two Pockets, Apocryphal Tales).
Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is hilarious and head-scratching in equal measure (at least until you figure out what he's doing).
Muriel Spark's novels (e.g. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) tend to reveal the central events right away, but take their time with why things turned out as they did, and make you work for a psychological explanation. Likewise, I have always found Isak Dinesen's highly mannered stories, and the motives of her characters, opaque in a stimulating way.
I'm following this thread with interest!
posted by aws17576 at 8:22 PM on December 17, 2020
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. It starts out like one kind of novel, then takes a left turn, and then another left, and then just launches itself into mysteriousness and sort of closes in on itself. Multiple POV, omniscient narrator who also manages to be unreliable (what) And at the end you are like ???? (But not in a plot twist way.)
It's basically 2020 in a book.
posted by basalganglia at 3:41 AM on December 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
It's basically 2020 in a book.
posted by basalganglia at 3:41 AM on December 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow might fit this. You know right at the start that a terrible thing has happened, and over the course of the book you find out just how terrible it was and how it all happened in a way that I didn't find predictable. It's also an exploration of faith/spirituality.
posted by archimago at 4:52 AM on December 18, 2020
posted by archimago at 4:52 AM on December 18, 2020
Christopher Priest's The Islanders is an almanac for a fictional archipelago. As you read through it, you get hints about various events that may or may not cohere into an explicit solution.
posted by yankeefog at 6:34 AM on December 18, 2020
posted by yankeefog at 6:34 AM on December 18, 2020
'The Starless Sea' by Erin Morgenstern. It's kinda like a fantasy/mystery/romance. A loose, atmospheric plot about secret societies and alternate realities. It's romantic and sentimental. I liked it a lot. It fits in with Susanna Clarke somewhat.
posted by ovvl at 6:41 AM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 6:41 AM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
If you're up for short stories, Jorge Luis Borges' "Ficciones" seems like it would be right in the territory you're looking at.
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:03 AM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:03 AM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns. Also by her: Who was Changed and Who was Dead.
posted by Morpeth at 8:18 AM on December 18, 2020
posted by Morpeth at 8:18 AM on December 18, 2020
oops, I just looked up Piranesi and think Barbara Comyns probably doesn't fit the bill. But if anyone's looking for eccentric feminist weird wave of the midcentury British variety: highly recommended.
posted by Morpeth at 8:22 AM on December 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Morpeth at 8:22 AM on December 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield.
posted by hought20 at 9:13 AM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by hought20 at 9:13 AM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
Have you read an Carlos Ruiz Zafon? I remember really liking Shadow of the Wind, and it has a great mysterious atmosphere. Don't remember if it's too much of a mystery story to fit your criteria, though.
posted by that's candlepin at 9:54 AM on December 18, 2020
posted by that's candlepin at 9:54 AM on December 18, 2020
Harkaway’s Gnomon. Also possibly The Gone-Away World by the same author, though what happens there is more clear by the end.
posted by clew at 10:01 AM on December 18, 2020
posted by clew at 10:01 AM on December 18, 2020
Definitely a book I don't hear discussed anywhere near enough, KJ Bishop's The Etched City. Wild, mysterious, dream-like, but coherent enough to feel like it's all building towards something (which it is)
posted by WidgetAlley at 10:10 AM on December 18, 2020
posted by WidgetAlley at 10:10 AM on December 18, 2020
The City & the City and Embassytown by China Miéville
posted by john m at 4:03 PM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by john m at 4:03 PM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
Basically everything by Gene Wolfe? Every book of his I've read is ambiguous, and contains mysterious small and large to be unpacked by the reader. He's been my favorite author over the past few years.
Since you asked for: Hidden, ambiguous, plot is not linear.
I'd recommend starting with Peace. It's all of those qualities in spades. You could also start with Fifths Head of Cerberus
From there, I'd recommend going to his opus: The Book of the New Sun
All of his novels touch on themes of identity, which seems aligned with your desire for "the unanswerable mysteries of life".
______________________
Obligatory Neil Gaiman on Gene Wolfe:
1) Trust the text implicitly. The answers are in there.
2) Do not trust the text farther than you can throw it, if that far. It's tricksy and desperate stuff, and it may go off in your hand at any time.
3) Reread. It's better the second time. It will be even better the third time. And anyway, the books will subtly reshape themselves while you are away from them. Peace really was a gentle Midwestern memoir the first time I read it. It only became a horror novel on the second or the third reading.
4) There are wolves in there, prowling behind the words. Sometimes they come out in the pages. Sometimes they wait until you close the book. The musky wolf-smell can sometimes be masked by the aromatic scent of rosemary. Understand, these are not today-wolves, slinking grayly in packs through deserted places. These are the dire-wolves of old, huge and solitary wolves that could stand their ground against grizzlies.
5) Reading Gene Wolfe is dangerous work. It's a knife-throwing act, and like all good knife-throwing acts, you may lose fingers, toes, earlobes or eyes in the process. Gene doesn't mind. Gene is throwing the knives.
6) Make yourself comfortable. Pour a pot of tea. Hang up a DO NOT DISTURB Sign. Start at Page One.
7) There are two kinds of clever writer. The ones that point out how clever they are, and the ones who see no need to point out how clever they are. Gene Wolfe is of the second kind, and the intelligence is less important than the tale. He is not smart to make you feel stupid. He is smart to make you smart as well.
8) He was there. He saw it happen. He knows whose reflection they saw in the mirror that night.
9) Be willing to learn.
posted by justalisteningman at 10:10 AM on December 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Since you asked for: Hidden, ambiguous, plot is not linear.
I'd recommend starting with Peace. It's all of those qualities in spades. You could also start with Fifths Head of Cerberus
From there, I'd recommend going to his opus: The Book of the New Sun
All of his novels touch on themes of identity, which seems aligned with your desire for "the unanswerable mysteries of life".
______________________
Obligatory Neil Gaiman on Gene Wolfe:
1) Trust the text implicitly. The answers are in there.
2) Do not trust the text farther than you can throw it, if that far. It's tricksy and desperate stuff, and it may go off in your hand at any time.
3) Reread. It's better the second time. It will be even better the third time. And anyway, the books will subtly reshape themselves while you are away from them. Peace really was a gentle Midwestern memoir the first time I read it. It only became a horror novel on the second or the third reading.
4) There are wolves in there, prowling behind the words. Sometimes they come out in the pages. Sometimes they wait until you close the book. The musky wolf-smell can sometimes be masked by the aromatic scent of rosemary. Understand, these are not today-wolves, slinking grayly in packs through deserted places. These are the dire-wolves of old, huge and solitary wolves that could stand their ground against grizzlies.
5) Reading Gene Wolfe is dangerous work. It's a knife-throwing act, and like all good knife-throwing acts, you may lose fingers, toes, earlobes or eyes in the process. Gene doesn't mind. Gene is throwing the knives.
6) Make yourself comfortable. Pour a pot of tea. Hang up a DO NOT DISTURB Sign. Start at Page One.
7) There are two kinds of clever writer. The ones that point out how clever they are, and the ones who see no need to point out how clever they are. Gene Wolfe is of the second kind, and the intelligence is less important than the tale. He is not smart to make you feel stupid. He is smart to make you smart as well.
8) He was there. He saw it happen. He knows whose reflection they saw in the mirror that night.
9) Be willing to learn.
posted by justalisteningman at 10:10 AM on December 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks, maybe?
posted by athirstforsalt at 9:11 PM on December 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by athirstforsalt at 9:11 PM on December 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by dhruva at 1:40 PM on December 17, 2020 [1 favorite]