Creatively structured and/or narrated novels
August 23, 2023 5:57 PM Subscribe
I really like novels with unusual or innovative narrative structures -- what more can you recommend? (Examples and details inside.)
The three novels that most exemplify what I mean are:
- Crossings by Alex Landragin -- a novel that can be read either straight through or in an alternate chapter sequence that directs the reader to jump around, where both make a coherent story. I followed the alternate sequence and loved it
- The Torqued Man by Peter Mann -- a story set in wartime Berlin that purports (in-novel) to be a mix of two different manuscripts, with each chapter alternating back and forth between the two manuscripts
- Trust by Hernan Diaz -- four different sections with four different narrators around the same story, each one providing a different perspective and building onto the story
From the example, I know it seems I just like books with multiple narrators, but I'm looking for something more than just that, not just a Game of Thrones-style novel told by multiple narrators. (If you have some literary vocabulary to help me out, that would be greatly appreciated!!)
Other books that I've read that I feel like are a tad bit further from what I am thinking of, but still exemplify a lot of the same kind of vibe:
- The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton -- a murder mystery where the protagonist relives the same day over and over again until they can solve the mystery -- told linearly, but you get a new perspective each time
"conventionally" told, but the high-concept tone
- The Appeal by Janice Hallett, which is more or less a modern epistolary novel, but one that I feel is particularly creative with it
A very important note is that I'm looking for narrative / construction creativity, NOT language creativity, by which I mean what I absolutely DON'T want is something like James Joyces' Ulysses.
That is to say -- I read for pleasure, and I don't mind being challenged by a literary structure where maybe not everything is clear at first glance, but I still want a plot, recognizable characters, writing in an English that I can understand (or also French or Spanish, but I realize most Mefites here are English-speaking), no stream of consciousness, three consecutive pages of nouns strung together, or anything remotely like that.
Thank you!
The three novels that most exemplify what I mean are:
- Crossings by Alex Landragin -- a novel that can be read either straight through or in an alternate chapter sequence that directs the reader to jump around, where both make a coherent story. I followed the alternate sequence and loved it
- The Torqued Man by Peter Mann -- a story set in wartime Berlin that purports (in-novel) to be a mix of two different manuscripts, with each chapter alternating back and forth between the two manuscripts
- Trust by Hernan Diaz -- four different sections with four different narrators around the same story, each one providing a different perspective and building onto the story
From the example, I know it seems I just like books with multiple narrators, but I'm looking for something more than just that, not just a Game of Thrones-style novel told by multiple narrators. (If you have some literary vocabulary to help me out, that would be greatly appreciated!!)
Other books that I've read that I feel like are a tad bit further from what I am thinking of, but still exemplify a lot of the same kind of vibe:
- The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton -- a murder mystery where the protagonist relives the same day over and over again until they can solve the mystery -- told linearly, but you get a new perspective each time
"conventionally" told, but the high-concept tone
- The Appeal by Janice Hallett, which is more or less a modern epistolary novel, but one that I feel is particularly creative with it
A very important note is that I'm looking for narrative / construction creativity, NOT language creativity, by which I mean what I absolutely DON'T want is something like James Joyces' Ulysses.
That is to say -- I read for pleasure, and I don't mind being challenged by a literary structure where maybe not everything is clear at first glance, but I still want a plot, recognizable characters, writing in an English that I can understand (or also French or Spanish, but I realize most Mefites here are English-speaking), no stream of consciousness, three consecutive pages of nouns strung together, or anything remotely like that.
Thank you!
If on a winter’s night a traveler.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:08 PM on August 23, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 6:08 PM on August 23, 2023 [9 favorites]
Cloud Atlas, Hopscotch
posted by kerf at 6:16 PM on August 23, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by kerf at 6:16 PM on August 23, 2023 [11 favorites]
Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, and its sequel, The Candy House.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:16 PM on August 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:16 PM on August 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think An Instance of the Fingerpost might fit your bill, it's a Rashomon-style mystery story told from 4 perspectives though I'm not sure they can be read out of order as each character is kind of responding to the section before.
posted by muddgirl at 6:19 PM on August 23, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by muddgirl at 6:19 PM on August 23, 2023 [8 favorites]
I love books like that, too. Loved "Trust". These are some of my favorites that fall into this category.
"The Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell -- it is six stories, with five of them split into halves around a central story, and the order in which they are told reversed after the halfway point, so the structure of the book is like this:
A1B1C1D1E1 F E2D2C2B2A2
"Dictionary of the Khazars" by Milorad Pavic. The book is structured like three apocryphal "dictionaries" or encyclopedias that reference each other.
"Hopscotch" by Julio Cortazar. You can read it linearly or in a prescribed order that is anything but linear.
"To Paradise" by Hanya Yanagihara which is told in three sections in three different time periods (past, present-ish, and dystopian future), focused around the same house in New York City, and the names of the characters repeat through each section, but the relationships between the people with the same names are "remixed" in different eras.
"House of Leaves" by Mark Danielewski which is done as an ersatz academic publication, with footnotes, and footnotes to those footnotes etc.
"In the Lake of the Woods" by Tim O'Brien. It's told as a story of an investigation, with the narrative going back and forth between the protagonist's POV (he is not a reliable narrator), testimonies from witnesses, press releases, footnotes, etc.
"Pale Fire" by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is basically structured around a poem titled "Pale Fire" by a fictional poet, and is comprised of the poem itself, and the commentary and index of the poem written by the author's friend and colleague.
posted by virve at 6:28 PM on August 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
"The Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell -- it is six stories, with five of them split into halves around a central story, and the order in which they are told reversed after the halfway point, so the structure of the book is like this:
A1B1C1D1E1 F E2D2C2B2A2
"Dictionary of the Khazars" by Milorad Pavic. The book is structured like three apocryphal "dictionaries" or encyclopedias that reference each other.
"Hopscotch" by Julio Cortazar. You can read it linearly or in a prescribed order that is anything but linear.
"To Paradise" by Hanya Yanagihara which is told in three sections in three different time periods (past, present-ish, and dystopian future), focused around the same house in New York City, and the names of the characters repeat through each section, but the relationships between the people with the same names are "remixed" in different eras.
"House of Leaves" by Mark Danielewski which is done as an ersatz academic publication, with footnotes, and footnotes to those footnotes etc.
"In the Lake of the Woods" by Tim O'Brien. It's told as a story of an investigation, with the narrative going back and forth between the protagonist's POV (he is not a reliable narrator), testimonies from witnesses, press releases, footnotes, etc.
"Pale Fire" by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is basically structured around a poem titled "Pale Fire" by a fictional poet, and is comprised of the poem itself, and the commentary and index of the poem written by the author's friend and colleague.
posted by virve at 6:28 PM on August 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
House of Leaves by Danielewski is definitely the strangest narrative structure I've ever read.
posted by aetg at 6:28 PM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by aetg at 6:28 PM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life - many iterations of the same life, cumulatively has the effect of conveying a new kind of character depth/dimensionality
Emily St John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility - this one is more of a multiple linked stories structure.
If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English does some interesting things with the alternating perspective structure.
Then We Came to the End - first person plural narration
The Heavens, Sandra Newman (maybe)
Yes, Cloud Atlas and Visit From the Goon Squad.
Your question also made me think of China Mievelle’s The City and the City, where it’s not at all the narrative structure that is novel, but rather the structure of the fictional cityscape. Yet somehow I feel like it might scratch the same itch, worth a try.
posted by yarrow at 6:33 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Emily St John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility - this one is more of a multiple linked stories structure.
If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English does some interesting things with the alternating perspective structure.
Then We Came to the End - first person plural narration
The Heavens, Sandra Newman (maybe)
Yes, Cloud Atlas and Visit From the Goon Squad.
Your question also made me think of China Mievelle’s The City and the City, where it’s not at all the narrative structure that is novel, but rather the structure of the fictional cityscape. Yet somehow I feel like it might scratch the same itch, worth a try.
posted by yarrow at 6:33 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Infinite Jest has a truly bonkers literary structure. Polarizing for sure; I came down on the “loved” side.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:36 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:36 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
“Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi - Each chapter alternates from the perspective of a different character in subsequent generations.
“This Is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone - Epistolary.
posted by icy_latte at 6:37 PM on August 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
“This Is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone - Epistolary.
posted by icy_latte at 6:37 PM on August 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
Maybe the French Lieutenant's Woman?
posted by shadygrove at 6:45 PM on August 23, 2023
posted by shadygrove at 6:45 PM on August 23, 2023
Both of these are at the edge of what I think you're looking for, but might fit:
"The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin is told in the second person and does some other interesting things with narrative viewpoint.
"Dhalgren" by Samuel Delaney starts in the middle of a sentence, and the end of the novel is the beginning of that sentence. There's some other structural strangeness, and also a whole lot of other strangeness. It's quite readable, though -- not a Joyce sort of experience.
posted by duien at 6:47 PM on August 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
"The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin is told in the second person and does some other interesting things with narrative viewpoint.
"Dhalgren" by Samuel Delaney starts in the middle of a sentence, and the end of the novel is the beginning of that sentence. There's some other structural strangeness, and also a whole lot of other strangeness. It's quite readable, though -- not a Joyce sort of experience.
posted by duien at 6:47 PM on August 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
Seconding Cloud Atlas - I was coming in to suggest it. You may have heard mediocre things about the film adaptation - don't worry. (The film abandons its nesting-doll structure out of dramaturgical necessity.)
A heads-up, though, that a couple of the sections are set in "the future" and there's some "weird future-style language" you run into, but it's not TOO weird and you can very easily adjust.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:57 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
A heads-up, though, that a couple of the sections are set in "the future" and there's some "weird future-style language" you run into, but it's not TOO weird and you can very easily adjust.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:57 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
You might find some overlap in this previous AskMe about “Rashomon-style” novels
posted by staggernation at 7:13 PM on August 23, 2023
posted by staggernation at 7:13 PM on August 23, 2023
Perec's Life: A User's Manual hasn't been mentioned yet.
posted by kickingtheground at 7:28 PM on August 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by kickingtheground at 7:28 PM on August 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress.. You'll love it or hate it.
posted by less-of-course at 7:31 PM on August 23, 2023
posted by less-of-course at 7:31 PM on August 23, 2023
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma
posted by knile at 7:43 PM on August 23, 2023
posted by knile at 7:43 PM on August 23, 2023
Version Control by Dexter Palmer
("Rebecca Wright has reclaimed her life, finding her way out of her grief and depression following a personal tragedy years ago. But she has a strange, persistent sense that everything around her is somewhat off-kilter: she constantly feels as if she has walked into a room and forgotten what she intended to do there; on TV, the President seems to be the wrong person in the wrong place; her dreams are full of disquiet. Meanwhile, her husband's decade-long dedication to his invention, the causality violation device (which he would greatly prefer you not call a “time machine”) has effectively stalled his career and made him a laughingstock in the physics community. But he may be closer to success than either of them knows or can possibly imagine.")
posted by minervous at 8:15 PM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
("Rebecca Wright has reclaimed her life, finding her way out of her grief and depression following a personal tragedy years ago. But she has a strange, persistent sense that everything around her is somewhat off-kilter: she constantly feels as if she has walked into a room and forgotten what she intended to do there; on TV, the President seems to be the wrong person in the wrong place; her dreams are full of disquiet. Meanwhile, her husband's decade-long dedication to his invention, the causality violation device (which he would greatly prefer you not call a “time machine”) has effectively stalled his career and made him a laughingstock in the physics community. But he may be closer to success than either of them knows or can possibly imagine.")
posted by minervous at 8:15 PM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday, for slightly spoilery reasons detailed in the link.
Life Is Everywhere by Lucy Ives, which recounts, within an overarching frame story, the contents of a woman's bag, ranging from two novellas to an unpaid electric bill. It will either be very much your thing or not your thing at all, and it maybe treads a little too close to the "no"s in your final paragraph (like, it is rambling, and fair warning, there are several chapters dedicated to reproducing a fictional, purposely mediocre academic paper) but for all that I found it both charming and surprisingly easy going.
posted by eponym at 8:23 PM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Life Is Everywhere by Lucy Ives, which recounts, within an overarching frame story, the contents of a woman's bag, ranging from two novellas to an unpaid electric bill. It will either be very much your thing or not your thing at all, and it maybe treads a little too close to the "no"s in your final paragraph (like, it is rambling, and fair warning, there are several chapters dedicated to reproducing a fictional, purposely mediocre academic paper) but for all that I found it both charming and surprisingly easy going.
posted by eponym at 8:23 PM on August 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies is this—and excellent!
posted by pinkacademic at 8:25 PM on August 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by pinkacademic at 8:25 PM on August 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
The Princess Bride is, of course, not the original story.
posted by Acari at 8:35 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Acari at 8:35 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Soviet classic The Master and Margarita contains three storylines (one of which is a novel written by a character in another storyline) that fuse together eventually.
posted by Comet Bug at 9:21 PM on August 23, 2023
posted by Comet Bug at 9:21 PM on August 23, 2023
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich.
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie.
Beloved by Toni Morrison.
posted by ojocaliente at 9:24 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie.
Beloved by Toni Morrison.
posted by ojocaliente at 9:24 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
LETTERS by John Barth has an ingenious structure that is only evident in retrospect (which I’m spoiling for you now):
The book is subtitled "An old time epistolary novel by seven fictitious drolls & dreamers each of which imagines himself factual." The structure is such that when the first character of each of the letters in the book are placed on a calendar according to their dates, and the individual months are turned sideways, they spell out the subtitle. In addition, the marked dates spell out the word "LETTERS."
A complication is that 5 of the 7 letter writers are characters from Barth’s previous novels and novellas, so you should probably read those first. The 6th is a new character created for LETTERS. The 7th is Barth himself.
Barth has a lot of great post-modern experimental stories that play with structure. One example is “Menelaiad,” a story in which a character from Greek mythology starts telling a story, and then a character in that story starts telling a story, and then a character in that story starts telling a story, and then you’re seven stories deep, but Barth keeps diving upward and downward through the levels, and you’re trying your best to follow along.
Another book with an interesting structure is Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis, the story of a man’s life told in reverse. It goes to very dark places, which you can learn from the link.
posted by ejs at 10:23 PM on August 23, 2023
The book is subtitled "An old time epistolary novel by seven fictitious drolls & dreamers each of which imagines himself factual." The structure is such that when the first character of each of the letters in the book are placed on a calendar according to their dates, and the individual months are turned sideways, they spell out the subtitle. In addition, the marked dates spell out the word "LETTERS."
A complication is that 5 of the 7 letter writers are characters from Barth’s previous novels and novellas, so you should probably read those first. The 6th is a new character created for LETTERS. The 7th is Barth himself.
Barth has a lot of great post-modern experimental stories that play with structure. One example is “Menelaiad,” a story in which a character from Greek mythology starts telling a story, and then a character in that story starts telling a story, and then a character in that story starts telling a story, and then you’re seven stories deep, but Barth keeps diving upward and downward through the levels, and you’re trying your best to follow along.
Another book with an interesting structure is Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis, the story of a man’s life told in reverse. It goes to very dark places, which you can learn from the link.
posted by ejs at 10:23 PM on August 23, 2023
Gideon the Ninth doesn't fit the bill, I don't think, but the two following books (Nona the Ninth and especially Harrow the Ninth) build on, rewrite, and reinterpret the events of the first book in amazing ways (and also have multiple narrators in multiple persons, multiple realities, etc.) You might find some parts of Harrow slightly stream-of-consciousness-y, though it's not gratuitous given that the state of one character's consciousness is a central plot point.
posted by trig at 12:38 AM on August 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by trig at 12:38 AM on August 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
Ella Minnow Pea is an epistolary novella about an island nation that idolises pangrams. It's set during a crisis that causes the government to ban the use of certain letters of the alphabet, which is reflected in the correspondence. It's really very good.
posted by Hermione Dies at 1:38 AM on August 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Hermione Dies at 1:38 AM on August 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
Janice Hallett's other books also play with storytelling in this way! The Appeal is still my favourite, but The Alperton Angels is told through texts, emails, film scripts written by the characters etc, and is a quick, zippy and exciting read.
I loved Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke, a workplace novel that is told entirely through Slack messages, and manages to be funny, sinister and moving.
Seconding the recommendations for House of Leaves, Cloud Atlas and Gideon and her successors (love those books).
I'm not entirely sure whether Charles Palisser is what you're looking for. He has written a massive tome, The Quincunx, a mystery set in Victorian England, which on the surface reads as a pastiche of Dickens, Wilkie Collins etc but actually repays really close attention to its structure and text. Without wanting to spoil it for you, there is a lot going on in that novel which isn't explicitly written in the text, but you can piece together that submerged narrative if you pay attention. The Quincunx is a huge book but you can give Palisser a test-run with his novel The Unburied, which is shorter and more contained but has similar elements of nesting narratives and a hidden sub-narrative that you can 'unbury' if you pay attention.
posted by unicorn chaser at 2:04 AM on August 24, 2023
I loved Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke, a workplace novel that is told entirely through Slack messages, and manages to be funny, sinister and moving.
Seconding the recommendations for House of Leaves, Cloud Atlas and Gideon and her successors (love those books).
I'm not entirely sure whether Charles Palisser is what you're looking for. He has written a massive tome, The Quincunx, a mystery set in Victorian England, which on the surface reads as a pastiche of Dickens, Wilkie Collins etc but actually repays really close attention to its structure and text. Without wanting to spoil it for you, there is a lot going on in that novel which isn't explicitly written in the text, but you can piece together that submerged narrative if you pay attention. The Quincunx is a huge book but you can give Palisser a test-run with his novel The Unburied, which is shorter and more contained but has similar elements of nesting narratives and a hidden sub-narrative that you can 'unbury' if you pay attention.
posted by unicorn chaser at 2:04 AM on August 24, 2023
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks.
Chapters numbered One, Two, Three etc. are alternated with chapters numbered XIII, XII, XI... I don't want to spoil more than that.
posted by protorp at 3:34 AM on August 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
Chapters numbered One, Two, Three etc. are alternated with chapters numbered XIII, XII, XI... I don't want to spoil more than that.
posted by protorp at 3:34 AM on August 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
2nd-ing “This Is How You Lose the Time War” - a wonderful novel.
posted by rosiroo at 3:35 AM on August 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by rosiroo at 3:35 AM on August 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes was originally a short story that he later expanded to a novel. I've only read the novel. The story is told by the protagonist, whose ability to understand what's going on in his life and whose emotional state evolve as the story progresses.
posted by rjs at 3:50 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by rjs at 3:50 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Life's Lottery by Kim Newman: you can read it from start to end as a novel, or you can play along and read it as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure interactive gamebook.
253 by Geoff Ryman might be a little too short on conventional plot, but it's certainly creatively structured. It's a novel that started life as a website. Each chapter consists of 253 words about one of the passengers on a Tube train.
I enjoyed The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt enormously, and I remember it as having an unusual narrative structure. This review in the Guardian suggests I might be right.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:02 AM on August 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
253 by Geoff Ryman might be a little too short on conventional plot, but it's certainly creatively structured. It's a novel that started life as a website. Each chapter consists of 253 words about one of the passengers on a Tube train.
I enjoyed The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt enormously, and I remember it as having an unusual narrative structure. This review in the Guardian suggests I might be right.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:02 AM on August 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
Seconding 'Life's Lottery'!
posted by plep at 4:07 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by plep at 4:07 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Unlanguage by Michael Cisco is in the form of a workbook/grammar guide for an impossible language of the dead, as if presented by an undead instructor, who is the protagonist in a non-linear (and grotesque and very morbid) narrative which accompanies the 'lessons'.
posted by misteraitch at 4:33 AM on August 24, 2023
posted by misteraitch at 4:33 AM on August 24, 2023
Milorad Pavic also wrote Landscape Painted with Tea, which has a unique crossword puzzle structure. It should not be ignored, though, that he supported Serbian war crimes.
posted by rikschell at 4:35 AM on August 24, 2023
posted by rikschell at 4:35 AM on August 24, 2023
Also in terms of creative structure, As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (both kind of Joycean and hard to read, would not recommend). And Spoon River Anthology, which I had to read in school and also hated. Just as reference points of things you might hear about but want to give a pass.
posted by rikschell at 4:38 AM on August 24, 2023
posted by rikschell at 4:38 AM on August 24, 2023
S is ostensibly an old library book with translator footnotes that hint at a wider mystery about the author, with notes written in the margins by a graduate student and a college student to one another (plus other goodies). You can read the novel first on its own (with or without diving into its footnotes), simultaneously with the reader comments, or read the comments first - they’re written over a series of months, based on the ink color, and have their own plot as the two student characters get caught in their own plot.
posted by Mchelly at 5:25 AM on August 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 5:25 AM on August 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a memoir that reads like a novel, partly because of the way Dave Eggers plays with structure.
posted by guessthis at 5:28 AM on August 24, 2023
posted by guessthis at 5:28 AM on August 24, 2023
they’re written over a series of months, based on the ink color,
This reminds me of The Neverending Story, where a boy sits down to read a book and his story and the story in the book begin to affect each other. In most printings the two stories are in different ink colors, which is nice (iirc) when they start getting intertwined.
Incidentally a lot of younger kids' books are really experimental in playing with structure and reader-text interaction (these aren't novels, obviously). The Monster at the End of This Book and a lot of Mo Willems come to mind, but there must be hundreds of examples.
posted by trig at 5:38 AM on August 24, 2023
This reminds me of The Neverending Story, where a boy sits down to read a book and his story and the story in the book begin to affect each other. In most printings the two stories are in different ink colors, which is nice (iirc) when they start getting intertwined.
Incidentally a lot of younger kids' books are really experimental in playing with structure and reader-text interaction (these aren't novels, obviously). The Monster at the End of This Book and a lot of Mo Willems come to mind, but there must be hundreds of examples.
posted by trig at 5:38 AM on August 24, 2023
Check out Ibid by Mark Dunn , who also wrote Ella Minnow Pea.
The premise is that the novel is just the footnotes from a since-destroyed biography of a three-legged circus performer and all that is left are the footnotes to the original biography.
It sounds convoluted but I found it quite easy to follow and a fun fiction read.
posted by archimago at 5:39 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
The premise is that the novel is just the footnotes from a since-destroyed biography of a three-legged circus performer and all that is left are the footnotes to the original biography.
It sounds convoluted but I found it quite easy to follow and a fun fiction read.
posted by archimago at 5:39 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Did I really scroll this far and not see anyone mention Tristram Shandy or The Mezzanine?
posted by Ardnamurchan at 5:40 AM on August 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Ardnamurchan at 5:40 AM on August 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
posted by HeroZero at 5:44 AM on August 24, 2023
Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
posted by HeroZero at 5:44 AM on August 24, 2023
Being Dead, by Jim Crace. The main characters die in the first chapter, then following chapters alternate between flashbacks through their lives and an unsentimental, closely observed narration of what happens to their decaying bodies.
posted by dr. boludo at 6:30 AM on August 24, 2023
posted by dr. boludo at 6:30 AM on August 24, 2023
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi is one of my favorite examples of this genre. Highly recommend if you liked Trust.
And seconding Fates and Furies, To Paradise, and Life After Life!
posted by lakemarie at 7:13 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
And seconding Fates and Furies, To Paradise, and Life After Life!
posted by lakemarie at 7:13 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Unfortunates by B. S. Johnson comes in a box, which contains individually bound chapters. As I recall, first and last chapters remain the same, but the reader is invited to shuffle the middle chapters.
posted by Quaversalis at 7:14 AM on August 24, 2023
posted by Quaversalis at 7:14 AM on August 24, 2023
Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity. Read it in hard copy, not ebook, the first time; it uses typeface and ink color, iirc, in really clever ways. (Also read unspoiled and prepared to cry a lot.)
posted by pollytropos at 7:19 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by pollytropos at 7:19 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've remembered another one - The Athenian Murders by Jose Somoza, which purports to be the translation of an ancient Greek novel, but the translator's story starts to merge with the story of the murders.
posted by unicorn chaser at 7:26 AM on August 24, 2023
posted by unicorn chaser at 7:26 AM on August 24, 2023
I've always argued that V. by Thomas Pynchon is original model for the recent literary fad of "a bunch of barely connected short stories with a novel label slapped on it."
posted by ovvl at 7:38 AM on August 24, 2023
posted by ovvl at 7:38 AM on August 24, 2023
Long Division by Kiese Laymon might suit this. Haven’t read it it yet but I saw it in a bookshop, and it has two front covers (so the back cover is also a front cover), with two different stories that interlock somehow.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:46 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by bluedaisy at 9:46 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Maureen Howard's Natural History is a wonderful novel with lots of experimentation. This is an obit for Howard but it mentions the book: Many considered Howard’s masterwork to be her 1992 novel Natural History, a family chronicle that incorporated drawings and photographs, in which Howard took Bridgeport, Connecticut as her Dublin. In a front page review in the New York Times Book Review, John Casey wrote that “it is the combination, the jump-cuts, and layering and dovetailing of fiction and history and of a variety of voices that make reading this novel like watching a display of the aurora borealis.”
posted by chavenet at 10:32 AM on August 24, 2023
posted by chavenet at 10:32 AM on August 24, 2023
Seconding Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday. A story told from one perspective, then you flip the book over and read the same story from the other character's perspective. Really loved the writing and and this convention.
posted by LKWorking at 10:33 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by LKWorking at 10:33 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Alexandria Quartet, by Lawrence Durrell: four novels representing the four dimensions – so the first three present the same narrative from different, simultaneous standpoints, and the fourth extends the story through time
posted by MinPin at 10:33 AM on August 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by MinPin at 10:33 AM on August 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
Another one that might fit what you're looking for - Possession, by A.S. Byatt, interweaves the story of a literary researcher who finds some letters linking the Victorian novelist he's been studying with a woman poet whom everyone thought was a recluse - then it shifts around between his point of view, the letters, the actual literary works, and the writers themselves. It's one of my favorites.
posted by Mchelly at 10:36 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 10:36 AM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Griffin and Sabine is written as an exchange of postcards and letters.
posted by SPrintF at 11:10 AM on August 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by SPrintF at 11:10 AM on August 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
I've thought of another one: Happenstance by Carol Shields. It's a portrait of a marriage. Read the wife's story, then flip the book over and read the husband's - or vice versa.
I've only just learned (from that link!) that the two parts were written a couple of years apart and published individually. I've only ever seen it in the combined volume, and it works so well that way!
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:01 PM on August 24, 2023
I've only just learned (from that link!) that the two parts were written a couple of years apart and published individually. I've only ever seen it in the combined volume, and it works so well that way!
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:01 PM on August 24, 2023
I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Takes unreliable narration to the next level. I loved the movie, which starts with Jessie Buckley reading the first chapter in a way that's truly hypnotic.
posted by BibiRose at 12:19 PM on August 24, 2023
posted by BibiRose at 12:19 PM on August 24, 2023
Heartily seconding Cloud Atlas (and just about everything David Mitchell has written), An Instance of the Fingerpost, A Visit from the Good Squad, Pale Fire, Life After Life, if on a winter's night a traveler, and Possession. (And my own thanks to everyone who recommended Hopscotch -- that goes next on my list)
I don't think I saw any of these mentioned yet:
Lance Olsen, Nietzsche's Kisses and My Red Heaven (or anything else he's written, really)
Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea
E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime
George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
Hannah Lillith Assadi, The Stars Are Not Yet Bells
Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days
Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre
Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch
Elizabeth Hardwick, Sleepless Nights
Sanford Friedman, Conversations with Beethoven
posted by paper scissors sock at 1:42 PM on August 24, 2023
I don't think I saw any of these mentioned yet:
Lance Olsen, Nietzsche's Kisses and My Red Heaven (or anything else he's written, really)
Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea
E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime
George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
Hannah Lillith Assadi, The Stars Are Not Yet Bells
Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days
Jac Jemc, Empty Theatre
Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch
Elizabeth Hardwick, Sleepless Nights
Sanford Friedman, Conversations with Beethoven
posted by paper scissors sock at 1:42 PM on August 24, 2023
Stephen King's bonus Dark Tower book The Wind Through The Keyhole is another one doing a nested doll story within a story within a story thing. It works as a standalone book that can be read without having read the larger series, and also happens to be the best thing he's written since the turn of the millennium IMHO.
posted by mannequito at 2:08 PM on August 24, 2023
posted by mannequito at 2:08 PM on August 24, 2023
The Overstory is like this, multiple books intertwined into one.
Cloud Cuckoo Land too.
Thanks for asking this, my want-to-read list has just doubled in length. :)
posted by nadise at 10:36 PM on August 24, 2023
Cloud Cuckoo Land too.
Thanks for asking this, my want-to-read list has just doubled in length. :)
posted by nadise at 10:36 PM on August 24, 2023
I'm rather interested in these kinds of books myself, thank you for this AskMe!
A few that I have here and might (still) fit the bill:
Chris Ware' Building Stories: a 2012 graphic novel that is made up of fourteen printed works - cloth-bound books, newspapers, broadsheets and flip books - packaged in a boxed set. (That takes up quite some space...)
Anne Carson's Nox: an epitaph in the form of a book, a facsimile of a handmade book Anne Carson wrote and created after the death of her brother. The whole book is a very long, single sheet of paper that you unfold.
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, curated by Barbara Heller: It's Pride and Prejudice! But the story is told along with 19 "handwritten" letters by Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, Caroline Bingley and company. Their notes, complete with appropriate postmarks, are dropped into pouches placed at just the right moments in the story.
Marcus Pfister's Milo and the Magical Stones: a picturebook telling an environmental story with the pages being split in half after a certain point, deliverting two endings for (child) readers.
posted by bigendian at 1:08 AM on August 25, 2023
A few that I have here and might (still) fit the bill:
Chris Ware' Building Stories: a 2012 graphic novel that is made up of fourteen printed works - cloth-bound books, newspapers, broadsheets and flip books - packaged in a boxed set. (That takes up quite some space...)
Anne Carson's Nox: an epitaph in the form of a book, a facsimile of a handmade book Anne Carson wrote and created after the death of her brother. The whole book is a very long, single sheet of paper that you unfold.
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, curated by Barbara Heller: It's Pride and Prejudice! But the story is told along with 19 "handwritten" letters by Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, Caroline Bingley and company. Their notes, complete with appropriate postmarks, are dropped into pouches placed at just the right moments in the story.
Marcus Pfister's Milo and the Magical Stones: a picturebook telling an environmental story with the pages being split in half after a certain point, deliverting two endings for (child) readers.
posted by bigendian at 1:08 AM on August 25, 2023
The Strugatsky Brothers' Lame Fate | Ugly Swans alternates chapters between the main narrative about the life of a novelist and that novelist's masterwork. I'm only halfway through it, but am enjoying it.
N'thing The Master and Margarita, Pale Fire, Lincoln In the Bardo, the Gideon series and Cloud Atlas.
Pretty much anything by David Markson. I genuinely enjoyed Wittgenstein's Mistress, but some of his other books (looking at you, Reader's Block) are a lot of work. But I think worth taking a look at given your interests.
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu - a novel about a struggling actor who's stuck in the role of Generic Asian Man and is written like a screenplay.
posted by snaw at 4:18 AM on August 25, 2023
N'thing The Master and Margarita, Pale Fire, Lincoln In the Bardo, the Gideon series and Cloud Atlas.
Pretty much anything by David Markson. I genuinely enjoyed Wittgenstein's Mistress, but some of his other books (looking at you, Reader's Block) are a lot of work. But I think worth taking a look at given your interests.
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu - a novel about a struggling actor who's stuck in the role of Generic Asian Man and is written like a screenplay.
posted by snaw at 4:18 AM on August 25, 2023
Your question made me think of the wonderful works of Ali Smith:
How to Be Both: "The story is told from two perspectives: those of George, a pedantic 16-year-old girl living in contemporary Cambridge, and Francesco del Cossa, an Italian renaissance artist responsible for painting a series of frescoes ... . Two versions of the book were published simultaneously, one in which George's story appears first, the other in which Francesco's comes first."
There But For The: four parts, "There," "But," "For," and "The", each focusing on different characters, but all related.
Like: two parts - part 1 is a narrative of a woman with a young daughter, and part 2 is the journal of an old friend of hers.
In my opinion, Smith is absolutely expert at using these structures to craft moving stories, and writes very compelling prose. I, too, read for pleasure, and I find her works gripping and engaging.
posted by kristi at 12:13 PM on August 25, 2023
How to Be Both: "The story is told from two perspectives: those of George, a pedantic 16-year-old girl living in contemporary Cambridge, and Francesco del Cossa, an Italian renaissance artist responsible for painting a series of frescoes ... . Two versions of the book were published simultaneously, one in which George's story appears first, the other in which Francesco's comes first."
There But For The: four parts, "There," "But," "For," and "The", each focusing on different characters, but all related.
Like: two parts - part 1 is a narrative of a woman with a young daughter, and part 2 is the journal of an old friend of hers.
In my opinion, Smith is absolutely expert at using these structures to craft moving stories, and writes very compelling prose. I, too, read for pleasure, and I find her works gripping and engaging.
posted by kristi at 12:13 PM on August 25, 2023
As someone who really enjoyed the Appeal and Evelyn Hardcastle, I feel like The Empress of Salt and Fortune could suit your tastes, although it is maybe a bit more straightforward than most mentioned. Same goes for A Psalm for the Wild-Built.
Others that come to mind:
Your Perfect Year
Where'd You Go Bernadette
The Eyre Affair
Paycheck (a lot of Phillip K. Dick stories in general, really)
Some Gods of El Paso
The Long Dark Teatime of The Soul
Still Life with Woodpecker
Six-Gun Snow White
posted by Saucy Possum at 2:38 PM on August 25, 2023
Others that come to mind:
Your Perfect Year
Where'd You Go Bernadette
The Eyre Affair
Paycheck (a lot of Phillip K. Dick stories in general, really)
Some Gods of El Paso
The Long Dark Teatime of The Soul
Still Life with Woodpecker
Six-Gun Snow White
posted by Saucy Possum at 2:38 PM on August 25, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by andrewesque at 6:02 PM on August 23, 2023