Novels about existential crisis & loss of meaning
June 23, 2021 10:12 AM Subscribe
I am looking for novels in which the protagonist experiences a profound loss of meaning and somehow comes out the other side. Think existential crisis, depersonalization, or nervous breakdown. We should follow the protagonist through the process of loss and (hopefully) reconstruction. Ideally something written in the last twenty years, though I'm open to older stuff, too.
Another variation would be someone realizing that they are not the person they thought they were; that the world doesn't perceive them at all how they perceived themselves; that previous events in their life were problematic in ways they had never considered; and how they recreate themselves in light of all this loss.
Another variation would be someone realizing that they are not the person they thought they were; that the world doesn't perceive them at all how they perceived themselves; that previous events in their life were problematic in ways they had never considered; and how they recreate themselves in light of all this loss.
Anna Karenina pretty much fits, if you view Levin as the protagonist.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:22 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by kevinbelt at 10:22 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. It's very different from the movie, which was only the first couple chapters.
posted by ananci at 10:24 AM on June 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by ananci at 10:24 AM on June 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
Silence by Shūsaku Endō hinges on an existential crisis and may fit the bill.
posted by jquinby at 10:25 AM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by jquinby at 10:25 AM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
that previous events in their life were problematic in ways they had never considered; and how they recreate themselves in light of all this loss
Women Talking
posted by kitcat at 10:34 AM on June 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
Women Talking
posted by kitcat at 10:34 AM on June 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
posted by SoundInhabitant at 10:36 AM on June 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by SoundInhabitant at 10:36 AM on June 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: that previous events in their life were problematic in ways they had never considered; and how they recreate themselves in light of all this loss.
To clarify, I mean that the protagonist realizes they did something horrible to someone else and then went on for years without it occurring to them they'd done anything bad at all.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:43 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
To clarify, I mean that the protagonist realizes they did something horrible to someone else and then went on for years without it occurring to them they'd done anything bad at all.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:43 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Do you have an example in mind? I'm also interested in this kind of book.
posted by kitcat at 10:49 AM on June 23, 2021
posted by kitcat at 10:49 AM on June 23, 2021
Another variation would be someone realizing that they are not the person they thought they were; that the world doesn't perceive them at all how they perceived themselves; that previous events in their life were problematic in ways they had never considered; and how they recreate themselves in light of all this loss.
Piranesi has elements of this.
posted by jabes at 10:59 AM on June 23, 2021 [7 favorites]
Piranesi has elements of this.
posted by jabes at 10:59 AM on June 23, 2021 [7 favorites]
This is more toward the first part of your question - a loss of meaning, and a journey to re-discover one's self: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Caveat: I think it got way overplayed in the media, polarized readers, and became its own cliche, but I really enjoyed the book. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by hydra77 at 10:59 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Caveat: I think it got way overplayed in the media, polarized readers, and became its own cliche, but I really enjoyed the book. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by hydra77 at 10:59 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
posted by ddaavviidd at 11:05 AM on June 23, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by ddaavviidd at 11:05 AM on June 23, 2021 [8 favorites]
I think The Once and Future Witches might hit the mark.
posted by euphoria066 at 11:13 AM on June 23, 2021
posted by euphoria066 at 11:13 AM on June 23, 2021
Do end-of-life reckoning novels count?
You're of a literary ilk (judging by your username), so I will suggest The Stone Angel - major part of the Canadian cannon. Caveat - written in the '60s. The loss here is aging and being forced to move to a nursing home. And having done some terrible things without realizing it or at least facing them. Reckoning comes at the end of the novel:
From wikipedia: In the present, 90-year-old Hagar struggles against being put in a nursing home, which she sees as a symbol of death. This narrative alternates with Hagar looking back at her life.
posted by kitcat at 11:20 AM on June 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
You're of a literary ilk (judging by your username), so I will suggest The Stone Angel - major part of the Canadian cannon. Caveat - written in the '60s. The loss here is aging and being forced to move to a nursing home. And having done some terrible things without realizing it or at least facing them. Reckoning comes at the end of the novel:
From wikipedia: In the present, 90-year-old Hagar struggles against being put in a nursing home, which she sees as a symbol of death. This narrative alternates with Hagar looking back at her life.
posted by kitcat at 11:20 AM on June 23, 2021 [3 favorites]
While chemically induced, The Doors of Perception by Huxley fits the bill.
posted by furnace.heart at 11:36 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by furnace.heart at 11:36 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
What Alice Forgot, by Lianne Moriarty (author of Big Little Lies) does this (in a well-written popular novel kind of way).
posted by mskyle at 11:40 AM on June 23, 2021
posted by mskyle at 11:40 AM on June 23, 2021
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
posted by dazedandconfused at 11:50 AM on June 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by dazedandconfused at 11:50 AM on June 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
Strongly seconding Days of Abandonment, mentioned in the first comment. But the classic is Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.
posted by nantucket at 11:55 AM on June 23, 2021
posted by nantucket at 11:55 AM on June 23, 2021
It sounds like maybe you are looking for modern works that are offspring of the classic existentialists? The fact that you added 'absurd' to the tags made me think of the movie The Beaver (Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson), but it's not based on a novel and I can't think of a similar book at all.
posted by kitcat at 11:58 AM on June 23, 2021
posted by kitcat at 11:58 AM on June 23, 2021
Vonnegut's Bluebeard has some similar themes.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:58 AM on June 23, 2021
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:58 AM on June 23, 2021
The first thing that the OP brings to my mind is Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. Definitely older than 20 years, maybe too obvious?
posted by Horkus at 12:05 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Horkus at 12:05 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
House of Leaves? Navidson, in the story, literally gives up on all references to meaning and comes out the other side.
posted by SPrintF at 12:10 PM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by SPrintF at 12:10 PM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
I also came here to suggest Nausea.
The Stranger, by Albert Camus, might fit. It's an existentialist classic, about finding happiness despite the indifference of the universe, but boy is it stark rather than uplifting.
posted by danceswithlight at 12:12 PM on June 23, 2021
The Stranger, by Albert Camus, might fit. It's an existentialist classic, about finding happiness despite the indifference of the universe, but boy is it stark rather than uplifting.
posted by danceswithlight at 12:12 PM on June 23, 2021
More about immense loss as grief than existential crisis, but you could consider The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.
posted by danceswithlight at 12:16 PM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by danceswithlight at 12:16 PM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Not a novel, but William Styron's Darkness Visible is a memoir of existential depression and recovery.
posted by basalganglia at 12:35 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 12:35 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:37 PM on June 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:37 PM on June 23, 2021 [4 favorites]
To clarify, I mean that the protagonist realizes they did something horrible to someone else and then went on for years without it occurring to them they'd done anything bad at all.
Unsurprisingly from the title, Atonement may fit your bill.
posted by praemunire at 12:38 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Unsurprisingly from the title, Atonement may fit your bill.
posted by praemunire at 12:38 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
The Leavers by Lisa Ko is a book that's stayed with me since I read it a few years ago. It's about a Chinese-American who grows up with the last memory of his birth mother being that she abandoned him when he was a small kid in NYC. He ends up adopted and relocated into a small, mostly white town. Anyway, the novel goes between him and his mother, who of course didn't intentionally leave him. There is a lot of both son and mother tussling with their identities and re-evaluating how they understand themselves.
posted by coffeecat at 12:46 PM on June 23, 2021
posted by coffeecat at 12:46 PM on June 23, 2021
Great question.
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton features two characters who go through this, with a couple of twists that give the process even more meaning.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt might qualify.
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson does this but is focused on several characters undergoing crisis/redemption.
The Overstory by Richard Powers is filled with like 8 characters who undergo this kind of transformation.
posted by oxisos at 12:49 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton features two characters who go through this, with a couple of twists that give the process even more meaning.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt might qualify.
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson does this but is focused on several characters undergoing crisis/redemption.
The Overstory by Richard Powers is filled with like 8 characters who undergo this kind of transformation.
posted by oxisos at 12:49 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Pincher Martin [1956] by William "Lord o' Flies" Golding. Lt Martin is the sole survivor from a sunk WWII destroyer who exists rather than lives on a rock. Spoiler in the Wikipedia entry.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:51 PM on June 23, 2021
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:51 PM on June 23, 2021
Greenwood by Michael Christie features characters (each gets their own section of the novel) dealing with their individual and linked existential crises. It’s one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:59 PM on June 23, 2021
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:59 PM on June 23, 2021
If you’re willing to consider a space opera, Ann Leckie’s “Ancillary Justice” involves this kind of dramatic psychological transformation of the point-of-view character.
posted by heatherlogan at 4:10 PM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by heatherlogan at 4:10 PM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage covers both of these themes.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 7:07 PM on June 23, 2021
posted by a humble nudibranch at 7:07 PM on June 23, 2021
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway is a weird science fiction take on a character who realizes that he is not the person he thought he was, that the world doesn't perceive him at all how he perceives himself, that previous events in his life were problematic in ways he had never considered, and who has to recreate himself in light of all this loss, in the context of a high-concept post-apocalypse.
posted by ejs at 7:37 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by ejs at 7:37 PM on June 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
My two favorites: Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb and Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy
posted by perhapses at 9:49 PM on June 23, 2021
posted by perhapses at 9:49 PM on June 23, 2021
If you liked "The Truman Show", Time Out Of Joint by Philip K. Dick.
posted by Rash at 9:52 PM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 9:52 PM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night - the protagonist goes undercover as a terrible person for a good cause and then reflects years later that there may be no gap any more between his mask and himself. In a similar vein, a lot of John Le Carre novels have individual and institutional realisations of guilt - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is very much about rethinking what you thought was your life. Plus Lazio Ishiguro's Pale View of Hills for a realisation of complicity. Also the stage play of Amadeus especially which is much more internal and less external than the film.
posted by MarianHalcombe at 4:14 AM on June 24, 2021
posted by MarianHalcombe at 4:14 AM on June 24, 2021
Response by poster: Thank you for all the recommendations! Not sure where I'll start, but there's plenty to keep me busy for a while. I'll report back.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:52 AM on June 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:52 AM on June 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Hope I’m not too late to suggest Invitation to a Beheading by Nabokov?
posted by rd45 at 9:49 AM on June 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by rd45 at 9:49 AM on June 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
One more!
To clarify, I mean that the protagonist realizes they did something horrible to someone else and then went on for years without it occurring to them they'd done anything bad at all.
Resurrection by Tolstoy is exactly this, the protagonist assaults a girl leaving her pregnant, forgets all about her, and ten years later comes face to face with her unexpectedly and is forced to confront what he's done leading to a complete spiritual awakening.
(A less strong recommendation for Crime and Punishment, it fits existential crisis, depersonalization, or nervous breakdown. We should follow the protagonist through the process of loss and (hopefully) reconstruction. )
posted by Lucy_32 at 3:44 PM on June 24, 2021
To clarify, I mean that the protagonist realizes they did something horrible to someone else and then went on for years without it occurring to them they'd done anything bad at all.
Resurrection by Tolstoy is exactly this, the protagonist assaults a girl leaving her pregnant, forgets all about her, and ten years later comes face to face with her unexpectedly and is forced to confront what he's done leading to a complete spiritual awakening.
(A less strong recommendation for Crime and Punishment, it fits existential crisis, depersonalization, or nervous breakdown. We should follow the protagonist through the process of loss and (hopefully) reconstruction. )
posted by Lucy_32 at 3:44 PM on June 24, 2021
Response by poster: Hope I’m not too late to suggest...
By all means, keep 'em coming!
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:09 PM on June 24, 2021
By all means, keep 'em coming!
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:09 PM on June 24, 2021
"Memory", part of the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. (Space opera.) However, you really need to read the preceding books to get the impact of this one! (They are SO worth it.)
posted by Cheerwell Maker at 3:15 PM on June 26, 2021
posted by Cheerwell Maker at 3:15 PM on June 26, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by eponym at 10:21 AM on June 23, 2021 [1 favorite]