A "Novel Cure" for anxiety about the future?
July 29, 2015 8:35 PM   Subscribe

Inspired by The Novel Cure, I'm wondering if I can get any book recommendations (preferably fiction) that deal with anxiety/worry about the future?

Lately, I've been massively anxious about my future. I'm in my late 20s and have ruminated about almost every aspect of my future for the past few months, for example: "Will I ever get married?", "Will I die alone?", "Will I ever get a better paying job?", "Will I have children?", "Will I have enough money for retirement?", "Will I be able to make more friends as I age?", etc. They're all sort of centered around those topics. I also sort of feel waaaaay behind all my peers. I've had enough of this and decided to book a therapy session for next week.

What I'm looking for right now are recommendations of novels (or poetry, plays, any sort of literature) that sort of deal with the subject of fear/anxiety/worry about the future. I'm hoping that there might be some books out there that I can find some solace in. Characters that will remind me that I'm not the only one who worries about these things and that maybe some of my worries are unfounded (and that it will be okay in the end?? or not??). Do you guys know of any books that would fit these requirements at all?

(I'm really just interested in fiction, not in self-help books or anything. That might be another question for another day.)
posted by modesty.blaise to Grab Bag (4 answers total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage really scratched this itch hard for me recently.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:19 PM on July 29, 2015


Walker Percy's The Moviegoer helped me understand the sensation I had of drifting through my own life (and toward nothing) at a moment when I really needed it explained to me.

Banana Yoshimoto's Goodbye, Tsugumi also meant a lot to me at the moment I read it—at the time I was really struck by the way it evoked the feeling of coming back to the scene of your childhood and wondering what the point of it was, and where you're going now that it's vanishing behind you.
posted by Polycarp at 11:55 PM on July 29, 2015


I get a kick out of reading "What should we worried about?" by John Brockman
posted by parmanparman at 12:04 AM on July 30, 2015


Howard's End does a lot of this for me. It's full of characters who are worrying about finding meaning and connection in their lives.
posted by earth by april at 6:05 AM on July 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


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