I am looking for books about loser men (or women) who are unemployed losers with few prospects who wallow in self-pity. Ideally, they are also lonely, with few if any friends and no romantic relationships.
Any recommendations are appreciated. Thanks.
by ZweigDidion
22 Comments
Its an oldie but goodie: Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky. Except he does not so much wallow as cover his shame with pride and spite.
Ok well i don’t know of any books where that is, like, what the whole book is like, but **Starter Villain** by John Scalzi’s main character starts exactly like this. He doesn’t do anything but watch TV in his dead parents’ house with his cat in sweats all day… until he unexpectedly inherits his late uncle’s supervillain business.
Down and Out In Paris and London by Eric Blair
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Dangling Man by Saul Bellow is your book. I read it back during the Great Recession when I had been laid off and it hit really close to home.
The dead take the A train by Cassandra Khaw is basically like this if you like horror/ paranormal. I DNF’ed because the FMC was such a loser that I didn’t want to follow her journey through the book. It’s about a lady whose is an “unemployed loser” and exercises demons as a side hustle but people often try to not pay her. So she’s broke, abuses substances, and struggles to get her life together as a big job comes her way.
My Year as a Fraud by Johanna Swanberg
You dont need a book, you just need to go outside and find such people. there are plenty of them. including myself. I do not get why people actually search for depressing stuff or things that can be found anywhere in the real world. arent you all tired of depressing, ordinary stuff? do you actually feel the need to also consume it?
“Something Missing” by Matthew Dicks. The MC fancies himself a professional thief. He steals things from “his clients” that they won’t miss. Like a cup of laundry detergent. A roll of toilet paper. The can of corn at the back of the cupboard. That is his “job” and how he makes a living. Until he starts having an emotional connection and his perfectly ordered and controlled world things begins to unravel.
You will either find this book heart warming and cute, or terrifying. It always elicits strong emotional reactions from the reader.
“Neanderthal opens the door tot the universe” is another good one.
Adrian Mole
The Fuck Up by Arthur Nersesian.
The ‘Adrian Mole’ series by Sue Townsend, played for laughs (in adulthood dead-end jobs rather than long term unemployment, but I think it still fits).
A Confederacy of Dunces
My autobiography
Thom Jones has a short story “40, still at home” in the collection “Sonny Liston was a Friend of Mine” which might fit the themes you’re interested in.
Lionel Shriver – Big brother – it’s from the siste’s POV but it’s about a child prodigy turn out to be an obese unemployed person. I really liked that the book covers a messy sibling relationship instead of a romantic one.
Requiem For A Dream by Hubert Selby, Jr. The MC is a junkie who has one friend and one girlfriend, but loses both of them.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Not a science fiction invisible man, a Black wanderer through the world of racism as they all get hooked on heroin.
No longer human – Osamu Dazai
This post made me laugh for some reason!
Hermit by Chris McQueer
Day Tripper
But the whole plot is that every day he wakes up at a different point in his life and he is trying to make his life better overtime