Looking for books, fiction or nonfiction, that tell their stories using unorthodox structures, whether that's non-linearly, using different ways of presentation, etc.
Recently tried Strange Pictures after the cover caught my eye at the local bookstore, the premise and concept were intriguing, but the book turned out to be a joke (everything is over-explained, a lot of "That boy's name? Albert Einstein" moments, characters have no development, the writing is genuinely terrible).
Not into fantasy or YA, generally not into sci-fi, would appreciate recommendations outside of those.
by m_t_rv_s__n
3 Comments
Maybe unlanguage by cisco, vergiftung by maria lazar, raw shark texts, house of leaves by danielewsky, freshwater by emezi, kryonium by zimmerman. Shark and kryonium are on the border to sf/fantasy but the focus is on other things.
Have you read The Princess Bride by William Goldman? It’s a very meta book that blends reality with fiction.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest: Each chapter is from a different narrator telling the story of the main characters life at different ages and how she came to be a world renowned chef. Cousin at elementary school age, high school boyfriend’s mom for teen years, etc. You never hear from the same narrator more than once and never hear from the MC. Really made me wonder how others may tell the story of how I became to be how I am.
Ella Minnow Pea: Epistolary, but the town bans letters of the alphabet and as they are banned the author stops using them in the story too. For example, the town banned “n” then the rest of the story is told without “n” in any of the words. Then they ban “p” so the story continues with no “n” or “p” in words. (I don’t actually remember which letters were banned, just for clarification.)