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i want someone to recommend a story to me. it can be a novel or a short story or whatever, i suppose. first and foremost i am looking for a novel.
i want the book to be, at some point, mean. i would love a western or southern gothic book. this is not a requirement, just a suggestion as to the mood i am looking for.
"emotionally shattering", "heartbreaking" and "haunting" are all acceptable. post apocalyptic in a literal sense is interesting and in an emotional sense is a big plus.
i read the road a couple of years ago and would love it if you could find me something to match that.
that is my recommendation to you guys: the road. many of you have probably read it already but if not, do it. it is great.
thanks thanks thanks.
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shit i was just reading about that book and the movie yesterday. i will definitely look into it. thank you!
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Lanark by Alasdair Gray.
Lanark defies description. Like Slaughterhouse Five it is both outlandish science-fiction and obvious autobiography, like The Third Policeman it makes use of lengthy footnotes that say absolutely nothing, it begins with book three, has a prologue halfway through, and it includes a long index of plagiarisms in the middle of a discussion between the author and his lead character. Like many difficult books it is probably better appreciated on subsequent readings, but it is likely to grab you from the off. Books 3 and 4 (which you read first and last) are about Lanark, a man who arrives by train in a strange town. Having no name, he takes one from a sepia-tinted tourist-photograph he saw on the compartment wall. The city has no daylight and the inhabitants do no work, living off subsistence-level grants from an unseen power. Many people suffer from oddly symbolic diseases. Lanark develops 'dragonhide', a physical manifestation of Wilhelm Reich's emotional armouring, which smothers his arm in thick heavy scales and claws where his fingers were, one of his friends develops 'mouths' the symptoms of which involves mouths opening like wounds over the body which then speak independently of the sufferer. Lanark commits suicide and comes round in 'The Institute'. The Institute is devoted to curing those it can, but uses the hopeless cases as fuel (dragonhide sufferers eventually 'go nova' if uncured, when their pent-up emotions cause their bodies to explode, which energy is harnessed to power generators) or as food (the glutinous 'softs' are turned into a processed blancmange-like substance which Lanark refuses to eat when he discovers its source). This is only part of the opening book. The novel later trips back to Glasgow just after the war, where we meet Thaw (who it would appear is Lanark in a previous incarnation) for books 1 and 2. I will stop the description here, because it cannot do the book justice.
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Go for John Steinback's novels: Grapes of wrath, Of mice and men, Cannery row, East of Eden. You can thank me later! As shattering and heartbreaking as you can get. Stephen King ain't got shit on him. I mean it.
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raur, color me interested if a bit confused, heh. thanks!
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Anything by H.P. Lovecraft, for instance The Call of Cthulhu.
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Crime and Punishment. F. M. Dostoevsky
it's more psychological than anything else, but still a great and disturbing read
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Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
In the tradition of Anne Rice and YA titles such as Annette Curtis Klause's The Silver Kiss (1999) comes this heady romance that intertwines Bella Swan's life with that of Edward, an alluring and tormented vampire. Bella's life changes when she moves to perpetually rain-soaked Forks, Washington. She is instantly drawn to a fellow student, Edward Cullen, beautiful beyond belief and angrily aloof. Bella senses there is more behind Edward's hostility, and in a plot that slowly and frighteningly unfolds, she learns that Edward and his family are vampires--though they do not hunt humans. Yet Edward cannot promise that his powerful attraction to Bella won't put in her in danger, or worse. Recklessly in love, Bella wants only to be with Edward, but when a vicious, blood-lusting predator complicates her world, Bella's peril is brutally revealed. This is a book of the senses: Edward is first attracted by Bella's scent; ironically, Bella is repelled when she sees blood. Their love is palpable, heightened by their touches, and teens will respond viscerally. There are some flaws here--a plot that could have been tightened, an overreliance on adjectives and adverbs to bolster dialogue--but this dark romance seeps into the soul.
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One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"The first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race." (William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review )
'The greatest novel in any language of the last 50 years' Salman Rushdie
I cant describe this book in words, by the time you finish it will hit you and hit you hard, amazing book.
If you like that try Marquez's Collected Novellas set they are great too.
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On May 15 2009 21:05 minus_human wrote:
Crime and Punishment. F. M. Dostoevsky
it's more psychological than anything else, but still a great and disturbing read
Definitely in agreement here. Dostoevsky certainly doesn't pull punches, and the psychological warfare in that book can be just scary.
Edit:
On May 15 2009 21:35 samachking wrote:
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
'The greatest novel in any language of the last 50 years' Salman Rushdie
Wow, if Rushdie praises something that much, I may have to check that out. Thanks!
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On May 15 2009 21:03 choboPEon wrote:
raur, color me interested if a bit confused, heh. thanks!
It's very weird and post-modern. Everyone I know who has read it got terribly depressed while reading it. It's a strange and haunting vision of a shattered world where love is meaningless and reality is unreliable.
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The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux. It fits your descprition. It is also best read when you don't know anything about it so I won't elaborate.
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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
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5673 Posts
On May 15 2009 21:35 samachking wrote:
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"The first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race." (William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review )
'The greatest novel in any language of the last 50 years' Salman Rushdie
I cant describe this book in words, by the time you finish it will hit you and hit you hard, amazing book.
If you like that try Marquez's Collected Novellas set they are great too.
QFT. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a genius.
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On May 15 2009 21:05 minus_human wrote:
Crime and Punishment. F. M. Dostoevsky
it's more psychological than anything else, but still a great and disturbing read
If you like that you could try reading The Karamazov Brothers aswell. I loved both of them but I like the latter more.
Oh and Twilight ain't worth it. You'll be able to predict everything in it and you will never get surprised by it.
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Nothing new in the west - Erich Maria Remarque
if you havent read it yet, do - the name and reputation should speak for itself
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On May 15 2009 21:07 floor exercise wrote:Twilight by Stephanie Meyer Show nested quote +In the tradition of Anne Rice and YA titles such as Annette Curtis Klause's The Silver Kiss (1999) comes this heady romance that intertwines Bella Swan's life with that of Edward, an alluring and tormented vampire. Bella's life changes when she moves to perpetually rain-soaked Forks, Washington. She is instantly drawn to a fellow student, Edward Cullen, beautiful beyond belief and angrily aloof. Bella senses there is more behind Edward's hostility, and in a plot that slowly and frighteningly unfolds, she learns that Edward and his family are vampires--though they do not hunt humans. Yet Edward cannot promise that his powerful attraction to Bella won't put in her in danger, or worse. Recklessly in love, Bella wants only to be with Edward, but when a vicious, blood-lusting predator complicates her world, Bella's peril is brutally revealed. This is a book of the senses: Edward is first attracted by Bella's scent; ironically, Bella is repelled when she sees blood. Their love is palpable, heightened by their touches, and teens will respond viscerally. There are some flaws here--a plot that could have been tightened, an overreliance on adjectives and adverbs to bolster dialogue--but this dark romance seeps into the soul.
i can't tell if this is a joke or not.
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Wizards First Rule - Terry Goodkind
its a long book (1100+pages) as is the rest of the series (8 books) but it is one of the most thought provoking and meaning filled series i've ever read.
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EPT
