Others: Positive Controversial and bizarre cult novel based on the author’s own experiences as a drug addict, first published in 1959. Formed as a series of inter-connected adventures set in locations as diverse as the U.S. Mexico and Morocco sees the protagonist, Burroughs’ alter-ego William Lee on the run from the police and always searching for his next fix. Burroughs once stated that the chapters can be read in any order.
Genres: literary fiction
Lists: …
Jonathan Franzen
2001 · 576 pages · 2 reviews
Others: MixedLike bookends of the past half century, the two generations of the Lambert family represent two very different aspects of America. Alfred, the patriarch, is a distant, puritanical company man; he is also slipping into Parkinson's-induced dementia. His wife, Enid, is a model Midwestern housewife, at once deferential and controlling. Their three children--Gary, an uptight banker, baffled by his own persistent unhappiness; Chip, and ex-professor now failing as a screenwriter; and Denise, and up-and-coming chief in a hot new restaurant--have little time for Enid and Alfred. But when Enid calls for one last Christmas at the family home, the trajectories of five American lifetimes converge. With this important, profoundly affecting work, Jonathan Franzen confirms his place in the top tier of American novelists. His unique blend of subversive humor and full-blooded realism makes The Corrections a grandly entertaining family saga.
What made the match, strongest first
Ottessa Moshfegh
2018 · 304 pages · 10 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveIt's early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side, and the alienation of Moshfegh's unnamed young protagonist from others is nearly complete when she initiates her yearlong siesta, during which time she experiences limited personal interactions. Her parents have died; her relationships with her bulimic best friend Reva, an ex-boyfriend, and her drug-pushing psychiatrist are unwholesome. As her pill-popping intensifies, so does her isolation and determination to leave behind the world's travails. She is also beset by dangerous blackouts induced by a powerful medication.
What made the match, strongest first
Gabriel García Márquez
2022 · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveNow a Netflix series adaptation starring Claudio Cataño, Jerónimo Barón, and Marco González One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America. Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.
What made the match, strongest first
Mark Z. Danielewski
2006 · 384 pages · 4 reviews
Others: NegativeMoving back and forth in American history, a kaleidoscopic novel follows Hailey and Sam, two wayward teenagers, as they crash New Orleans parties, barrel up the Mississippi, head through the Badlands, and take on other adventures.
What made the match, strongest first
Sally Rooney
2024 · 454 pages · 2 reviews
Others: MixedAside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
What made the match, strongest first
Michel Houellebecq
2024 · 544 pages · 2 reviews
Others: PositiveA stunning political thriller from the author of Serotonin and Submission about faith and family, love and mortality, social upheaval and political controversy.In Michel Houellebecq's Annihilation, it is 2027 and France is in a state of economic decline and moral decay. Unemployment, rural poverty, and income inequality have reached unprecedented levels. As the country plunges into a closely fought presidential campaign, the French state falls victim to a series of mysterious and unsettling cyberattacks. A video posted on the internet depicts the guillotining of Finance Minister Bruno Juge.As an adviser to Minister Juge, Paul Raison is close to the heart of government. His wife, Prudence, is a Treasury official, while his father, Édouard, now retired, has spent his career working for the French counterterrorism agency. Paul’s personal life is as troubled and as atomized as that of the his marriage has become strained, while his ties with his siblings are distant. But when Édouard suffers a stroke, Paul has an opportunity to repair his relationship with them, as they determine to free their father from the medical center where he is wasting away.
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itEasily one of the strangest books ever written by the infamous and revered Reverend of Transgressive Fiction. It's a literary bullet shot at the head of society in the form of a costic, zany, twisted, vulgar, surreal, and satirical novel.
