Novels told in an interesting way

[petronella23]

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!

Martin Amis's Time's Arrow is a life written in reverse. Was shortlisted for the Booker in the early 90s, I think it was. I thought it was brilliant - won't say any more about it in case you decide to read it!

Me again! David Mitchell, not the comedian, has written a number of novels, I haven't read his later stuff but his first and third novels, Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas (which was filmed) are both numerous interlocking stories across time and he is a phenomenal writer IMHO.

Aaand again - have a look at Richard Powers' The Overstory, again multiple stories all based around trees and another amazing writer IMHO - look at his other stuff too if you're interested- more conventional formats but amazing writing.

CJ Tudor - The Drift.
Anything by Catriona Ward (although Looking Glass Sound pushed the cleverness just a tad too far for me).
Penance - Eliza Clark. Quite grueling subject matter, though.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha has a really interesting naive and rather disturbing narration, from the perspective of its central child character. The Tin Drum is similarly interesting and disturbing.

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.

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.

Kate Atkinson - Life after Life.

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.

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

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.

Came here to say Cloud Atlas too!!!

Sarah Waters' The Night Watch is constructed backwards.

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

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.

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

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!

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

Do keep them coming!

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

And second An Instant at the Fingerpost.

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.

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

'Milkman' by Anna Burns.

Just amazing

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

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

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