Quiet books

[Quietlonging]

I've realised that some of my all time favourite books are best described as 'quiet'. A lot is left unsaid but there is often an underlying sense of longing or yearning... I read lots of different genres but if pushed to pick some of my all time favourites, I think they fall into this category. Examples-

The End of the Affair
Remains of the Day
Greengage Summer
Commonwealth (Ann Patchett)

Does anyone a) understand what I mean 😂and b) have any similar recommendations.

Great post, I've never really thought about that, but now you suggest it, it makes sense. I've read Greene and I know what you mean! @Quietlonging

Although Fowles didn't think it was his greatest work, The Magus evokes longing, I think. I certainly wanted to be on the Greek island he describes.

Have you read the Olive Kitteridge or Lucy Barton series, both by Elizabeth Strout?
Or Intimacies by Katie Kitamura.

You might like Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac, almost anything by Anita Shreve or Ann Tyler. Tyler in particular is a queen of quiet books. Also books by Kent Haruf - he's very understated too.

The End of the Affair is one of the best novels ever, imo. I love it so much.

I'm with you on this. I sometimes read books where I feel too much happens too quickly.

I love this idea. One that springs into my mind is A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley. And I find the Dalgliesh books by PD James have a calmness about them.

Oh definitely. The opposite of a page turner.
Mr b's bookshop in Bath does a reading spa (remote available) where they find your reading preference. They identified mine as
20th century developed world, woman of middle age. Basically me. I don't need drama.

As well as Anna Tyler and patchett, I add to the mix Lionel scheiver and Jodi picoult (in both cases their most famous novels : Kevin and my sisters keeper are their weakest)

My favourite novels are often almost plotless and tranquil.

Two earlier Kazuo Ishiguro novels, A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World.

A lot of Virginia Woolf, especially Between the Acts or Mrs Dalloway.

Elizabeth Bowen's novels in general -- even her 'WW2 spy novel' The Heat of the Day, set in London in the Blitz, is remarkably calm and unplotty. Also The Last September.

Deirdre Madden's novels in general, but especially Molly Fox's Birthday -- basically, a writer wakes up in the house of her friend, an actor, who is working away, and spends the day thinking about their friendship.

Early Haruki Murakami novels are also very quiet, before he got surrealist.

That's why PD James is the only crime novelist I read (other than Dorothy L Sayers) -- they're 'about' murder, but what actually seems to interest her is ordered, well-regulated, often rather solitary people and their meaning-making processes. Though I find Adam 'Lean, dark and handsome, and too austere for fun/mess/bad taste' Dalgleish kind of unsufferable, and wish she'd written more Cordelia Gray novels.

You have articulated that beautifully for me:- "ordered, well-regulated, often rather solitary people and their meaning-making processes". I do like AD, but most interesting are the ancilliary and sometimes almost background characters - they are the ones who stick in my mind. Ex-husband of the barrister and his new family. The travelling homeless man in Norfolk. The psychiatrist who ends her affair when she finds God. The order and calm they bring to their own lives.

In a similar vein; Station Eleven and it's spin offs (can't quite call them sequels). I find these very anchoring.

Catherine Ryan Hyde writes in this style.

In a similar vein; Station Eleven and it's spin offs (can't quite call them sequels). I find these very anchoring.

Station Eleven has spinoffs? I loved it! Can you give me the titles?

I would say that The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley is very much in this bracket.

The Glass Hotel and The Sea of Tranquility. I loved them both. Can’t explain them without spoiling, but I am jealous that you have them ahead of you!

Seconded. Also A Month in the Country by JL Carr (which I keep recommending to people)- a young man returns from WW1 and travels to a village in Yorkshire to restore a picture in the church. Not a lot happens but somehow everything happens.

I adore The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim which I think has this feel. It's hard to describe to people as it sounds v dull on paper and very little happens bar a change of scene and yet the characters become so real to me I feel I know them. They also change and blossom to become the people they were meant to be. If you like audiobooks the Elizabeth Bron narration available on Audible is superb.

Anne Tyler is a wonderful 'quiet' writer.

Ooh thanks for all the responses.

Already love many of these - A month in the Country is an amazing book. Also love John Fowler, Hotel du Lac.

I have to admit I find Anne Tyler a little boring (whispers!). Also struggled a little with Olive Kitteridge but think I tried to read it when I was in the wrong mood.

PD James - definitely agree, though you wouldn't think crime would fall into this category.

I think 'bittersweet' books like Atonement are also similar.

Also - just thought of another - Snow Falling on Cedars

A Month in the Country by JL Carr is a great quiet book

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I picked it up at the airport when going on holiday last year and loved it (surprisingly, as it's about a couple of computer game programmers). It's quiet and thoughtful and explores the complexity of relationships. I passed it on to my DM and she and her friends loved it too.

I love the idea of ‘quiet’ books.

I can recommend The namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and her short stories (one is more of a novella), Unaccustomed Earth

Nice thread. I discovered Sarah Waters last week but found her way too eventful and nerve-jangling for me. My DH is enjoying it a lot, but I'm more at home with the Quiet List.

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny is this sort of book. It’s all about studying the behaviour of the characters. It’s one of all time favourite books.

I loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Travelling Cat Chronicles, The Salt Path, anything by Miss Read, the Bill Slider books by Cynthia Harrod Eagles and I orticilarly like Delderfield's Swann Trilogy.

Oh, and most Nevile Shute.