Book recommendations for someone who likes ‘impenetrable’ books

[Onyvaquimalypense]

I’m trying to find a book for my dad as he is about to have an operation and might like something to read while he is in hospital. He’s difficult enough to buy for at the best of times but particularly when it comes to books! I’ve had some success so far with Robert MacFarlane, Ian M Banks and some other ‘hard’ science fiction and William Dalrymple but now I’m stuck. If anyone has any suggestions of authors in this vein, or any fiction that’s technical and a bit impenetrable really, I’d be very grateful!

I don't think Mantel is impenetrable. There is a lot of detail, as with much historical fiction. And the tense she writes in makes it difficult for some (me) to get into and enjoy.

Impenetrable probably not the right word for Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy, it’s hugely popular after all and loads of people have gone on to read all three. But it is big and dense, both “proper literary writing” and really informative on the history (albeit with HM’s pro TC slant).

Talking of Booker winners there’s always Midnight’s Children.

Again, not impenetrable. DilysPrice - we obvs have very different perceptions, either of reading matter or of the meaning of a word!

Yes I guess it is easy reading by comparison with The Glass Bead Game, but it’s much richer in content than something like Neal Stephenson and the historical element gives it weight for someone who likes intellectual challenge from their fiction.

I really disagree about Neal Stephenson not being “rich in content”-especially compared to something as wishy-washy as Hilary Mantel. Anathem in particular explores complex mathematical problems, multiverse theory, tricky philosophy, the role of religion in society, the evolution of language... Don’t diss something just because it’s sci-fi.

Yes sorry that was the wrong phrase. Clearly Stephenson is stuffed full of ... stuff..and may well be right up the DF’s street which is why I suggested it. But I’d say there’s a sense in which it’s lacking in depth as a work of art.

Right. Anathem sample downloaded. Will read that and a chapter or two of something Mantel. And return with definitive opinion.

By which time OP's father will have recovered from his surgery, cycled round the world a couple of times, and swallowed the entire works of Macaulay in a completely new language.

‘hard’ science fiction and William Dalrymple but now I’m stuck. If anyone has any suggestions of authors in this vein, or any fiction that’s technical and a bit impenetrable

Anything by William Gibson (he invented the term 'cyberspace') - his collaboration with Bruce Sterling on The Difference Engine is fun. Cool Hunter is also great fun!

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Unconsoled (it's like reading a novel that is a dream)

Philip Hensher, The Northern Clemency - extraordinary book, almost without a plot but it stays with you, particularly if you were an adult in the 1970s and 80s.

wonderful American novelist Richard Powers

ooooooh yesss - I've only read The Time of Our Singing - extraordinary novel.

I loved The Time of Our Singing. Great novel.

"Ian M Banks and some other ‘hard’ science fiction"

Iain Banks is not Hard SF His books are Space Opera, among the "softest" possible SF known to mankind.

I second the recommendations of Anathem by Neal Stephenson and The Three-Body Problem trilogy by Cixin Liu. Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and Seveneves would also fit your description.

I would also recommend A Scanner Darkly and Martian Time-Slip (don't be put off by the name!) by Philip K Dick. They are both brilliant and brainhurty.

I feel bound to admit that after prompting here I rediscovered my forgotten, unread copy of 'Hyperion' in a pile of books blocking a draughty window frame ... It has been removed to a place of honour.

I'm really inclined to add Sylvia Townsend Warner's 'The Corner That Held Them' to this list. Perhaps not impenetrable - but it is awful hard to re-find your place if you've put it down half-read a couple of Summers ago. (Also very wonderful)

And David Jones' 'In Parenthesis' for exactly the same reason.

Oh wow! I read In Parenthesis when I was about 19, after he was a guest speaker in one of my seminars. It was so exciting then.

Ooops no, I'm actually not that old ... It was a talk by D. M. Thomas (author of The White Hotel, also a weird impenetrable book) who quoted David Jones, and 'In Parenthesis' as his inspiration.

Getting my Welsh/Cornish authors mixed up

I did wonder ...

over-excitement at someone mentioning "In Parenthesis." not a poem many people talk about now, let alone read ...