So here's a list of authors I love:
Kurt Vonnegut
Chuck Palahniuk
Brett Easton Ellis
Philip K Dick
Hunter S Thompson
William S Burroughs
Allen Ginsberg
Evelyn Waugh
Martin Amis
George Orwell
Joseph Heller
Graham Greene
Spike Milligan
I think it kinda adds up to a particular flavor of black comedy that turns on the tragedy of human stupidity, is sometimes dry, sometimes warm, sometimes absurd (or gonzo), and often comes across like it's channeling very real frustration and despair from the authors. A lot of these writers use unreliable narrators and write about war or politics.
They're also all UK or US guys and most of them (apart from maybe Palahniuk and Ellis) aren't contemporary.
I'm looking for stuff like this that's either more recent; or from writers of other nationalities; or other genders.
It doesn't have to be all 3 of those things but if it's an older non-US/UK classic from a dude (Notes from Underground, The Stranger, 100 Years of Solitude etc) I'm more likely to have read it already.
The nearest I've been able to find is Lydia Lunch and Nick Cave that kinda of have some of that gonzo intensity.
by Goddamn_Glamazon
1 Comment
I don’t know of these fit the bill, you will have to judge. They are set in the U.S. or UK but they are all female authors
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Third Witch by Rebecca Reisert
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
Method 15/33 by Shannon Kirk
The Power by Naomi Alderman