i hate how vague this request is, but i’m not sure how else to put it. i’m in need of a book with a lot of heart – i suppose with some kind of commentary about the human condition.
my favorite books are frankenstein and les misérables. the former resonated deeply with me as a queer person who was rejected by my own creators by virtue of my existence. i saw myself a great deal in the creature for that reason. i’ve always felt that frankenstein was a novel with a great deal to say about the world. i felt the same about les misérables. the struggle of the revolutionaries in the face of certain doom inspired me to never surrender to hopelessness; the resolve of valjean to be good, despite javert’s demonization of him, greatly inspired me not to allow myself to grow embittered by an environment that always seemed to think the worst of me.
i also quite liked crime and punishment, largely because of the sheer amount of depth to raskolnikov’s character. i grew extremely attached to him. i’ve been yearning for a character i can grow that attached to ever since.
i feel like every book i’ve read lately hasn’t had a lot to say about the human condition. i loved the secret history by donna tartt, for instance, but it felt shallow in the way of substantial commentary about humanity (beyond “elitism is bad”), and i didn’t feel like i learned anything deep about any of the characters. (it’s excellently written. this isn’t a dig at tartt. the characters are intended to feel separated by some distance from the reader by virtue of the narrator’s limited perspective. i’m just looking for something different.) i’ve been reading ancient greek works (the odyssey, prometheus bound, the iliad), but i feel a similar degree of separation from all of the characters that i can’t quite pinpoint the cause of. i think it’s just because we don’t learn a whole lot about the characters before the events of the book pick up, and they consequently feel like strangers to me, since it’s not like we’re going to get told a whole lot about their upbringings.
does anyone have any recommendations for books that flesh out their characters & offer meaningful commentary?
i should note that i generally don’t fw fantasy books, or with sci-fi that borders on fantasy.
by frenchhatewompwomp