Recommend a book for someone who....

[Jaimx86]

Loves Douglas Coupland, Bret Easton Ellis, Philip K Dick and David Eggers.

I fancy a good reading session this afternoon.

The typical blurb usually reads: ^Andy, Dag and Claire have been handed a society priced beyond their means. Twentysomethings, brought up with divorce, Watergate and Three Mile Island, and scarred by the 80s fall-out of yuppies, recession, crack and Ronald Reagan, they represent the new generation - Generation X.
Fiercely suspicious of being lumped together as an advertiser's target market, they have quit dreary careers and cut themselves adrift in the California desert. Unsure of their futures, they immerse themselves in a regime of heavy drinking and working at no-future McJobs in the service industry.^

Any ideas?

[Jaimx86]

Or persuade me to dip into a new genre...

[aMag314]

um,,,, ''are you experienced?'' by william sutcliffe popped in to my head. But I don't know if that's too old. It was from when I was in my 20s

[Jaimx86]

Ooo thanks aMag314, that looks like my thing.

I like a lot of late 80s/90s so that one (being published 1997) is fine. My absolute favourite is Less than Zero (B E Ellis), which was published 1985.

[Catastrophica]

Have you tried Phillip Roth?
American Pastoral is amazing and as good a place to start as anywhere.

[SatsukiKusakabe]

What about The Goldfinch - theft, drugs, a desert? By the same author, The Secret History - university, debauchery, mystery?

David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas or the Bone Clocks

David Foster Wallace - Infinte Jest

Sci-fi - Dan Simmons Hyperion Cantos

[Jaimx86]

I read Roth's Patrimony a while back and really enjoyed it. Will take a look American Pastoral (and maybe retread Patrimony) - thanks!

[Jaimx86]

Infinite Jest looks perfect, Satsuki! At 1000+ pages long it should keep me going too.

[KimmySchmidtsSmile]

I love Doug Coupland. Hey nostradamus! makes me cry.

Joshua Ferris And then we came to the end is similar to Mcjob themes, a bit slow, but I liked it.

Gene Brewer K-pax is excellent, very funny, mixture of psychology and physics but easy to read. Read it before the film adaptation.

Marisha Pessl Special topics in Calamity Physics is an interesting debut novel

You might like Chuck Palahniuk, although he is an acquired taste: diary and choke were my favourites, the latter was made into a vg film.
He also did a short story collection Haunted but I would read diary/choke first.

Finally Bill Wahl on kindle unlimited/cheap to buy: the art of impossibility. Philosophy meets art meets characters in need of something. Very good read. His short stories also engaging.

Miriam Views the flying Troutmans is a dysfunctional family road trip but that description is grossly unfair to it.

Also enjoyed Simon Rich spoilt brats story collection and Jesse Rosenberg's Bream gives me hiccups, also short stories.

Hope one of those does it for you!

[KimmySchmidtsSmile]

Miriam Toews, autocorrect kills my soul!

[Jaimx86]

That's great, Kimmy. Thank you!

[annandale]

I thought The Goldfinch too.

Also A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan.

May we Be Forgiven by A M homes.

Also are you into Coetzee? I think you'd love him (he's a bit strong for me). Disgraced, for example.