Looking for a new favorite – a book that interrogates the way we understand knowing and being…

I have two favorite books. The number one fave is As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. The second is Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo.

For me, these books hit a certain spot in my heart and mind. The strangeness is amplified by the impact of the themes of grief and laguage, and the implications around the fragility of being and knowing.

The fragility of being and knowing is something that stirs my obsession. In As I Lay Dying, Addie talks about language as a useless tool in the face of being/unbeing, how words can never truly describe the impact of life and death. In Pedro Paramo, Juan Rulfo explores the fragility of existence through a process of the main character’s journey through grief and death/ego-death.

I’ve posted a similar request before, but the recs didn’t quite hit the spot. Maybe its because it is difficult to explain exactly what it is about these two favorites that impacts me most. But I want to try again.

Please, recommend me my next favorite book. Something that stirs the existential longing, something that moves me to the bone, something that says something about who we are underneath all of the words, the breaths, the losses, the days and nights – something that challenges the very essence of meaning.

by happycowsmmmcheese