I loved Kavalier and Klay too.
My suggestion would be something by Mark Helprin. While reading A Soldier of the Great War, I recall several times pausing to re-read a particular sentence because it was so beautifully written.
Read some of the Amazon reviews in the link and you’ll see I’m not alone.
mmm
If I understand your criteria, my nominees, in no particular order, might be:
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman (although, in truth, I recommend this book no matter the criteria!)
Tana French, who writes what are ostensibly police proceedurals but has perhaps the greatest contemporary gift for prose I’ve read in years, start with In The Woods.
The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach, baseball-related.
I’m also a big fan of James Lee Burke’s writing, FWIW.
Mark Helprin is a master of gorgeous prose. If you want a linear novel, try Soldier of the Great War. If you’re up for some magical realism in a novel length prose poem, go with Winter’s Tale (which took me forever to read, not because it was difficult or dull, it was neither. I just had to constantly stop, gasp at the beauty of the language and reread)./ gush
Ray Bradbury has (had) an amazing gift of language. He’s certainly not just a “sci-fi” guy, but someone who can tell a story with extremely affecting and moving prose.
I can’t say enough good things about Walker Percy; Love In The Ruins is a good place to start.
Here are some books that I found very beautifully written, but were also nicely and briskly plotted without any experimental frills (because I do really think that Faulkner’s prose is beautiful, but it’s definitely not breezy reading):
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (and sequels)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Zone One by Colson Whitehead (anything really by Colson Whitehead)
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
Black Swan Green and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (who is known for being quite experimental, but these two are very straightforward in terms of plot)
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (which is conceptually a little out there, but not in terms of the reading experience, if that makes sense. It isn’t cryptic or obscure.)
The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers
I think most of Ursula K. LeGuin’s works would fit your criteria. If I were to recommend one thing specifically, it would be The Lathe Of Heaven. Runner-up: “Paradises Lost”, a short story from The Birthday of the World.
Another of my favourites is The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. That thing is impossible to read quickly, I savour every word each time.
I noticed a lot of lovely turns of phrase in David Mitchell’s Slade House and The Bone Clocks. Well worth reading, if you have the patience to read what are essentially short stories with another short story embedded in them.
A Death in the Family by James Agree
I’m a huge fan of the crime novels of W.R. Burnett, most of them as good, many better, than the more famous movies adapted from them: Little Caesar, The Asphalt Jungle, Iron Man (hard to find but worth it, with some chapters as good as anything Hemingway ever wrote, just considered as prose) and, my favorite Burnett novel of all, High Sierra, way superior to the excellent movie based on it.
Also excellent, Grahame Greene, whose novels are now considered classic. Where to begin? Well, The Quiet American, The Heart Of The Matter, Our Man In Havana, The Human Factor and, from earlier on, Orient Express and Brighton Rock. So many to choose from. Most local libraries should be well stocked with Greene’s novels.
On a more modest level, and still highly entertaining, the novels, especially the early ones, of Eric Ambler, a “spy specialist” whose novels of intrigue are often set “somewhere in the Levant”, or nearby. Two well known early ones: Journey Into Fear and A Coffin For Dimitrios. His later novel, The Light Of Day, was adapted into the charming movie Topkapi.
Ray Bradbury has already been mentioned, however two other masters of the short story, John Collier and Roald Dahl, deserve a mention. Also, for darker subject matter, Cornell Woolrich is tough to beat.
As for crime fiction, just about any novel by Raymond Chandler is, if you’re in the right frame of mind, and enjoy reading a book by someone who obviously loves writing, Chandler is a joy. The somewhat similar but less flamboyant James M. Cain is also good but more journeyman. Chandler was a master of the English language who, had he been born at a different time, had a more ambitious disposition, could have been one of the “greats”.
The Go-Between, by L. P. Hartley. If you’ve heard the quote “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”, that’s where it’s from.
Also second Willa Cather, esp. Death Comes for the Archbishop.
John Buchan is best known for his Richard Hannay adventure stories, especially The 39 Steps, all (well, most) of which are quite well-written in their own right; but if you want something really extraordinary, try his historical (Tudor) novel The Blanket of the Dark. It’s thoughtful, and haunting, and deep-rooted, and a damn good read, and different.
Another vote for Nabokov.
I loved Kavelier and Klay. Have you read Wonderboys? Loved that one, too.
Philip Roth’s writing is beautiful. Also Salman Rushdie.
…and Philip Roth grew over the years. He was quite the mature, serious and at times lyrical writer when he wrote the deeply felt American Pastoral.
And another vote for Nabokov.
When I want beautiful prose I like:
E.M. Forester
A.S. Byatt
Margaret Atwood
Jane Austen
If you’ve never read To Kill A Mockingbird, its very good prose.
Anything by Marilynne Robinson - Gilead is amazing, but I just finished Home recently and found it even better.
Bring a hanky though. God.
I reread 1984 a few years ago and was really struck by the language, which of course is surely on purpose as it’s about people who have been robbed of their language. Just wonderful.
ETA - oh, wait, how about John Crowley’s Little, Big?
The Fool’s Progress by Edward Abbey
…slamming the door behind her. Slams it so hard the replastered wall around the doorframe shivers into a network of fine reticulations, revealing the hand of a nonunion craftsman.
When I re-read Charlotte’s Web as an adult, I was struck by how beautifully written it was.
It’s gorgeous, and cries to be read aloud.