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Original poster

Novels told in an interesting way

130 replies

petronella23 · 08/11/2023 16:57

Can't quite think how to phrase what I mean, but has anyone got any recommendations for books told in an interesting way/that push the format outside the standard way?

I'm thinking for example of The Appeal by Janice Hallet which is a sort of solve-along murder mystery told by setting out all the documents in the case.

So I'm thinking epistolary novels or books that only use dialogue....things like that.

Interested to read something really clever that really works, and doesn't just feel like a gimmick!

OP posts:
RaininginDarling · 08/11/2023 23:21

VeryQuaintIrene · 08/11/2023 17:48

Kate Atkinson - Life after Life.

My favourite book! I revisit often. And, God in Ruins because it is a mind-blowing companion piece. I daren't say more for spoilers.

Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders. It is so unusual in its structure, multiple POVs and subject matter. Moving and playful.

And Anna Burns Milkman. Although, if unfamiliar with the Northern Irish cadence. I recommend the audio book.

TooningOut · 08/11/2023 23:12

@thistimelastweek I was going to say The Milkman. Amazing book. I loved it too.

MuchasSmoochas · 08/11/2023 22:54

Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor, interspersed with news items and historical artefacts. It’s brilliant.

Bronzenettle · 08/11/2023 22:42

I was going to say the twyford code & life after life too.
the ink black heart if you like reading a lot of chat room extracts!

Splcam · 08/11/2023 22:39

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban

Snoeberry · 08/11/2023 22:39

After the Party by Cressida Connolly in the sense that the story was , to my mind, unexpected and quite chilling the way it unfolded.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Never let me Go by Kashuo Ishiguro

Hiddendoor · 08/11/2023 22:31

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

An island slowly bans the use of letters from the alphabet. Loved it.

thistimelastweek · 08/11/2023 22:06

'Milkman' by Anna Burns.

Just amazing

mouche202 · 08/11/2023 22:05

These might be a bit old fashioned now but here are mine:
The Blind Assassin and/or Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff
The Watchmen by Alan Moore

BarnacleBeasley · 08/11/2023 22:02

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler has an interesting first person plural narrator that (if I remember correctly) sort of shifts from chapter to chapter so it's told from the perspective of all the members of the book club except one, but the combination of people is not always the same.

Bruisername · 08/11/2023 21:56

And second An Instant at the Fingerpost.

Bruisername · 08/11/2023 21:55

The Unfortunates by BS Johnson - the chapters are all separate and come in a box and you jumble them up and read in any order.

catch 22

Kurt Vonnegut books often have jumbled chronology

Original poster
petronella23 · 08/11/2023 21:48

Thank you, all great suggestions. Some I've heard of but most I've not, so lots to check out.

Do keep them coming!

OP posts:
ValBiro · 08/11/2023 19:39

As soon as I saw your title I was going to recommend a Janice Hallet book... Of the 3 she has written so far (not counting the Xmas one which I'm saving for Xmas!) The Twyford Code is my favourite so far. It really stuck with me!

FourChimneys · 08/11/2023 19:36

The Grapes of Wrath has alternating chapters, one from the actual story, the next adding context to the situation.

JaninaDuszejko · 08/11/2023 19:27

For the ultimate meta novel there is always The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. It's great fun.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino is a series of interconnecting stories, much better and more amusing than David Mitchell's versions of the same structure.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo which won the Booker a few years ago is another set of interconnecting short stories.

The Georgians loved the epistolary novel though so if anything that's the structure that the Victorians with their omniscient narrators were rebelling against. I suspect fashion in literary novels will swing round again though because every prize winning novel these days seems to play with structure to the extent that reading a Victorian style novel feels almost shockingly rebellious.

AuntieDolly · 08/11/2023 18:58

Iain Pears An Instance of the Fingerpost. Same events told from the point of view of 4 people. Lovely intricate wordy book

Magpie Murders - a bit lighter, but we'll done, mixing modern day murder with the plot of a book

CrossPurposes · 08/11/2023 18:06

Sarah Waters' The Night Watch is constructed backwards.

Sittingintheshade · 08/11/2023 17:53

Came here to say Cloud Atlas too!!!

BlazingWorld · 08/11/2023 17:52

Oh, I remember reading 253 in the 90s, which was set on a tube train with 253 people each of whom had 253 words written about them.

WitcheryDivine · 08/11/2023 17:51

The Woman in White is told as a series of accounts.

BlazingWorld · 08/11/2023 17:50

Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad has a chapter written in PowerPoint slides and one in the form of a magazine article.

VeryQuaintIrene · 08/11/2023 17:48

Kate Atkinson - Life after Life.

BoldFearlessGirl · 08/11/2023 17:31

Also, Ironopolis by Glen James Brown, a recent favourite of mine. It starts with letters, has multiple character povs running through then interview-type notes in the end section, mostly dialogue. Superb.

Needmorelego · 08/11/2023 17:31

Fannie Flagg's book Fried Green Tomatoes is a story within a story and jumps back and forth though different times in history and different characters.
Her other books are very similar.

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