Origin of the Matrix relating to a Science Fictional setting... [more inside]
posted by madmamasmith on Dec 24, 2009 - 19 answers

Please help me remember the title and author of a short story I read maybe 15 years ago. A handicapped woman, living with her sister and her sister's family, sees a man in church she feels quite sure is the devil. In order to get away from him, she struggles to regain the physical independence she had given up. (She had gone into a wheelchair because walking was possible, but too painful.) She does manage to become self-sufficient enough to move out on her own--and then wonders if it was worth it, after all. I am almost sure the author was Italian. Can anyone help?
posted by uans on Nov 16, 2009 - 0 answers

When did it become passé to use quotation marks to denote direct speech in contemporary fiction? [more inside]
posted by war wrath of wraith on Sep 14, 2009 - 36 answers

Suggest absorbing fiction about mysterious England. [more inside]
posted by Doctor Suarez on Aug 2, 2009 - 54 answers

I demand to know your favorite short story anthologies. [more inside]
posted by zoomorphic on Jun 23, 2009 - 30 answers

I crave a great novel that's as addictive as a popcorn movie. Please recommend me some literary page-turners. [more inside]
posted by Beardman on Jun 5, 2009 - 104 answers

Books about Peru & Bolivia? [more inside]
posted by UbuRoivas on May 18, 2009 - 10 answers

Looking for short story collection suggestions. [more inside]
posted by imabanana on May 18, 2009 - 23 answers

Edmund White's Caracole was once called "the finest French novel written in English." What are some other books that reproduce in English characteristic aspects of a literary style associated with a particular foreign language?
posted by Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh on Apr 8, 2009 - 8 answers

Looking for sci-fi/speculative fiction that deals with the issue of colonization, immigration, and refugees. The more details the better! Specifically looking for stories that deal (at least partly) with the stories of the immigrants themselves, and not just the abstract idea. [more inside]
posted by sarahkeebs on Apr 4, 2009 - 40 answers

Help with my homework filter!! I want to compile a list of time travelers from literature, television and cinema. I am looking for a couple specific attributes. [more inside]
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur on Mar 9, 2009 - 35 answers

I'd like recommendations for short stories that are strange, humorous, or have a surprising twist. [more inside]
posted by Rinku on Mar 8, 2009 - 56 answers

What are some literary works that begin with an aphorism, then proceed without transition to straightforward narrative? [more inside]
posted by Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh on Mar 5, 2009 - 14 answers

Seeking relatively well-known, canon-caliber fictional accounts of imaginary encounters between actual, historically significant figures -- especially encounters that could well have taken place, but which we know did not or remain undocumented. Philip Levine's poem "On the Meeting of Garcia Lorca and Hart Crane" typifies what I'm looking for. Mark Twain's _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ does not (respectable evidence out there of a historical Arthur notwithstanding). The literary field is rife with examples, I know -- say, some novel casting Charles Lindbergh and Adolf Hitler into a tete-a-tete. But, ack, I'm drawing a blank. [more inside]
posted by taramosalata on Feb 5, 2009 - 31 answers

I'm looking for the title of a French short story, in which a father kills his son. [more inside]
posted by Isingthebodyelectric on Jan 29, 2009 - 5 answers

Please help identify this author/book; Brazilian absurdist/surrealist, stream of consciousness fiction about a part-man/part something else that travels around and continually says a phrase like "holy f-ing s-".
posted by destro on Jan 19, 2009 - 2 answers

San Francisco filter: Help me find a good book club for 20-30-somethings? [more inside]
posted by mingodingo on Jan 11, 2009 - 13 answers

Can anyone recommend good novels about gay people? Not just genre fiction but actually literature? It seems to me there must be, but I've never been able to find any.
posted by blue shadows on Dec 14, 2008 - 57 answers

Suggest some magazines which publish short stories and poetry that are not stuffy and pretentious. Also, any science fiction magazines that are worth reading would be greatly appreciated as well. [more inside]
posted by scarello on Nov 4, 2008 - 9 answers

Short Story Askme: I read a short dystopian story many years ago set in a run-down, post apocalyptic future. A queue of people line up on a street to spit at a painting. The painting represents all the problems of the past. It is implied that the painting is The Mona Lisa. What is the story?
posted by bollockovnikov on Sep 25, 2008 - 2 answers

LiteratureFilter: Yo metafilterland. I'm on a quest for two things: literary representations of the new york city subway, the more personal and sensorial the better, and literary representations of a new york city without subways, circa before 1904. Non-fiction and suggestions are welcome as well, as are examples that use less stringent definitions of "text" (film, song lyrics, dance etc).
posted by billtron on Sep 22, 2008 - 21 answers

What are some good short stories in which time passes extremely quickly? [more inside]
posted by whir on Sep 1, 2008 - 12 answers

Why do novelists use "________" in place of a character's name? [more inside]
posted by serazin on Aug 11, 2008 - 10 answers

What is the title of this short story? Author? Any hints? About a boy and his younger brother (more detailed description of the story follows) [more inside]
posted by jujube on Jul 20, 2008 - 2 answers

What are your favorite short stories or short story collections, anthologies etc. [more inside]
posted by Salvatorparadise on May 28, 2008 - 54 answers

Help me remember the name of this short story about a draft dodger in Vietnam. [more inside]
posted by BusyBusyBusy on May 15, 2008 - 8 answers

Help me find this quotation. The gist of it is something like this: in current times, fantastical metaphors are the only way of describing the convoluted reality of experience. [more inside]
posted by overglow on May 12, 2008 - 6 answers

Trying to make a list of fictional drinks. For instance: Clementine mixxes up a couple of "blue ruins" in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the Silver Jews' song Buckingham Rabbit makes reference to "shattered dogs on the rocks." What other fictional drinks can you think of? [more inside]
posted by es_de_bah on May 4, 2008 - 53 answers

Short-story filter: contemporary American story with a scene of a baby boy whose father cruelly dangles a pocketwatch just out of reach so as to get the boy used to disappointment. [more inside]
posted by headnsouth on Mar 5, 2008 - 3 answers

Recommendations/sources for good erotic writing? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Mar 1, 2008 - 16 answers

What are some good books on gangs, gang activities, internal organization and structure? [more inside]
posted by MediaJunkie on Jan 21, 2008 - 23 answers

Help me identify this short story! It is a story told from the perspective of an infant as he is free-falling through the garbage chute of a multi-level housing complex after being discarded by his teenage mother. The story is divided into nine parts, with each part signifying the baby's arrival at each floor until he finally reaches the trash compactor at the ground level. [more inside]
posted by sansgras on Jan 16, 2008 - 4 answers

What is the name of this short story that I am thinking of? [more inside]
posted by jModug on Jan 6, 2008 - 6 answers

Looking for some good, loooong novels. [more inside]
posted by sonofslim on Dec 17, 2007 - 102 answers

Short Story Filter: I'm trying to track down a wonderful short story I read maybe 15 years ago. It focuses on a couple struggling with a dysfunctional marital and/or sexual relationship. The story is set somewhere in a snowy/icy climate, and the central conceit of the story is that the husband needs to free their car which is stuck in the snow. As the story unfolds, the author describes the back-and-forth rocking of the car as he slams it from "drive" into "reverse" and back again, and it becomes clear that the movement of the car is a powerful sexual metaphor. Finally the car rolls free and the dramatic release seems to provide hope for the relationship. Does this sound familiar to anybody? I thought the title of the story was "Unstuck," but Googling has led me nowhere.
posted by AngerBoy on Dec 11, 2007 - 5 answers

I am looking for some fiction where the main character is a loner and seems to be OK with it. (possible spoilers) [more inside]
posted by bitteroldman on Nov 11, 2007 - 45 answers

"Me not ugly, me is beautiful." Do you know what monster might have said this? [more inside]
posted by Metroid Baby on Nov 2, 2007 - 24 answers

Can anyone remember the name of a book from my childhood? Kid lit from the late 60’s/early 70’s. Book is about the Holocaust, I think. Bought the book from the Scholastic Book Club (they don’t have lists from back then). The book has a red cover with a picture of a girl with dark brown hair. Part of the story takes place on a train going to Siberia(?). Hope you can help me find this book!
posted by D Dear on Oct 31, 2007 - 12 answers

I would like to read some literate, accurate portraits of what it's like to be an attractive person in present U.S. or European society. [more inside]
posted by cgc373 on Aug 7, 2007 - 25 answers

Help me remember the name of this short story (or novel that includes this story): A housecleaner's employer tells her she can keep all the change she finds when she cleans his office. She ends up with a jar of change containing more than one hundred dollars, and the employer reneges his offer. Thanks! [more inside]
posted by jiiota on Jul 14, 2007 - 6 answers

"The master's body!" roared the butler into the mouthpiece. "I'm sorry, madame, but we can't furnish it — it's far too hot to touch this noon!" What he really said was: "Yes… yes… I'll see." I've always wondered what this passage from The Great Gatsby means. [more inside]
posted by matthewr on May 24, 2007 - 15 answers

ShortStoryFilter: Looking for a short story where Americans go on vacation and get killed. [more inside]
posted by mwang1028 on May 6, 2007 - 3 answers

I loved fairy tales as a child, and now that I am (nominally) a grownup, I love the "retellings" of fairytales — the fleshed-out versions which, for example, feature actual character development instead of lines like "she was as beautiful as she was good". I love Robin McKinley's retellings of "Donkeyskin", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty and the Beast" (which she did twice for good measure), and Gregory Maguire's surprisingly political Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. What other good grown-up fairytales are out there?
posted by orange swan on Apr 11, 2007 - 60 answers

I am looking for well regarded books/scholarly papers about writing. Most specifically in the areas of Nonfiction (the essay style of article writing) and Children's Fiction (for a young adult audience). Any tips? Go as far and broad as you can. I'll be off to the British library tomorrow, so the sky is the limit. [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Jan 9, 2007 - 6 answers

I want to write a Christmas-themed essay for my book review blog, and I'm trying to come up with some Christmas lit to review. It might be fun, for instance, to gather together a selection of Christmas tripe such as Santa's Christmas Prayer (link not safe for those who have any literary sensibilities and have just eaten) and go to town on it. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, to write something about Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Which Christmas novels/stories/poems do you love and loathe? I don't review movies, so text only please...
posted by orange swan on Nov 28, 2006 - 13 answers

I want to read something by Thomas Bernhard. I understand that his works are incredibly bleak, but that they lie on a continuum: ranging from blackly humorous to straight-up splenetic. If I am a fan of Hilary Mantel, which Bernhard book might be good to start with?
posted by everichon on Nov 21, 2006 - 11 answers

Is Science Fiction primarily an American genre of literature? [more inside]
posted by Deep Dish on Nov 4, 2006 - 35 answers

Book series for children and young adults? Recommendations welcome. There is [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes on Oct 23, 2006 - 49 answers

I like to go to dark, smoky, dive bars and sit there with a drink and a book for hours. Unfortunately, I'm running out of good bar reading. Can you help me find more? Examples inside. [more inside]
posted by dersins on Sep 27, 2006 - 48 answers

Enrique Vila-Matas is an author known by using other author's quotations into his own fiction books. Bartleby & Co. and El mal de Montano quote dozens of works by other authors. How can he do this, legally? [more inside]
posted by dfreire on Sep 25, 2006 - 2 answers