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!

84 Charing Cross rd is lovely, all written in letters.
Room, written from the point of view and voice of a young child.
A man called Ove, not that unusual but jumps between the present and past. The past makes the present make sense.

Another one for Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. And I’m currently reading the Fingersmith by Sarah Waters which is very cleverly written from a number of perspectives.

It’s written in a very traditional way but the way the central character in “Remains of the Day” looks back at his past, slowly getting more insight into it seemed quite groundbreaking to me - albeit maybe it might not be the kind of thing you’re after.

@Suchapain , I love the Griffin and Sabine books. I've never met anyone else who knew of them before I told them. So beautiful.

Memories of the Future by Siri Hustdevt is written partly as a memoir and partly as a piece of fiction. The memoir parts are about her move to New York to try and find a main character and try and write a novel about that character. The fiction parts are that novel. The memoir and novel are interspersed with each other. I've only just started but I love her other work and its looking good so far.

She also wrote The Blindfold which is structured around four 'episodes' in a young woman's life where she's basically treated like shit by men. They're kind of interconnected by also not. They're more interconnected than four short stories but not as interconnected to make one novel IYSWIM.

I also enjoyed that way To Paradise was written by Hanya Yanagihara. It was three separate sagas, each long and deep enough to be a whole novel, spaced 100 years apart year (1883, 1993, 2093) with some thematic connections across them all.

Agree re The Remains of the Day - he has a very unusual way of writing.

Also The Time Travellers Wife, if you haven't already read it.

The Bees by Laline Paull. Written from the POV of bees..🐝

Thanks for starting this thread OP - I'm now adding titles to my 'to read' list 😊

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unfortunates

this the book I mentioned upthread as the description from wiki is far better than my attempt!

The Unfortunates is an experimental "book in a box" published in 1969 by English author B. S. Johnson and reissued in 2008 by New Directions.[1] The 27 sections are unbound, with a first and last chapter specified: the 25 sections between them, ranging from a single paragraph to 12 pages in length, are designed to be read in any order,[1] giving a total of 15.5 septillion possible combinations that the story can be read in.[2] Christopher Fowler described it as "a fairly straightforward meditation on death and friendship, told through memories."[3] Jonathan Coe described it as "one of the lost masterpieces of the sixties".

The Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel. The narrative jumps forward in time with different characters and then back again and some of the characters cross over with The Glass Hotel (you don’t have to read one to appreciate the other).

Also her Station Eleven moves in time and is beautifully written.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham. It’s about Virginia Woolf and two fictional women (all set in different times) and mirrors Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (which I haven’t read but The Hours is a great story anyway - I need to read Mrs D then re-read The Hours).

Trust by Hernan Diaz

The same events written by four different people and in different formats - novel, biography etc. Long but worth persevering

Birds without wings by Louis de Bernieres. In fact anything be that author. I think he's a bit Marmite in that people either love or hate his style. I thought his trilogy of WW1 and WW2 books were great too.

The British Museum is Falling Down, by David Lodge. About a man who escapes his life in the reading room at the British Museum. But different chapters are written in the style of different authors (Kafka, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce). The last chapter in particular is fabulous - it was the first time I realised what he was doing so I had to go back to the beginning and read again to play Spot The Parody.

Books written from the perspective of deeply unpleasant characters - American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis is well known but a couple of John Banivlle's ones are as well - The Book of Evidence is one

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell is probably the best one I've read though - a memoir of a former Nazi mass murderer - won two very prestigious French literary awards (was written in French by an American and first published there)

You're very welcome 🙂

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. The protagonist has to save Evelyn but each time he fails is 'reborn' in a different body. Never read anything quite like it.

Another rec for The Bees by Laline Paull. Such a strange story but utterly compelling!

@StormySea23 - I've read the Stuart Turton book - it's definitely written in a different way and very effective and enjoyable. Think An Instance at the Fingerpost by Iain Pears was a bit similar

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Gabrielle Zevin. Very clever, written in different time frames and jumps backwards and forwards, with computer games as the backdrop. Discussed it at book group tonight - was a thought provoking read

I read this too.

I read one called E (I think) which was set in an office and written in emails. It was very funny in a Drop the Dead Donkey kind of way.

https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/matt-beaumont/e/9780007100682?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=18082217234&cq_con=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImc_GsJO4ggMVz-h3Ch0N6ApGEAQYAiABEgKTdvD_BwE#GOR000426015

I ordered this up once in a copyright library and ended up with a lot of total strangers around my desk, fascinated.

Re-commenting but people keep mentioning Sarah Waters and… just read her work, it’s awesome. Fingersmith is my favourite closely followed by Night Watch and Affinity. Can’t wait for her next one.

For something a bit less literary try Murder In The Family by Cara Hunter. A group of experts is brought together to make a TV programme investigating a cold case murder. It’s told entirely through transcripts of the programme, production notes and newspaper articles.

Dracula - Bram Stoker

The Employees by Olga Ravn is a series of witness statements with the crew of a spaceship who encounter some strange objects from a new planet. Gorgeous.

Placemarking

The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker. More of a novella, and written across someone's lumchbreak with incredible attention to detail. In places the footnotes are longer than the narrative.