# Reccomend me Fun and Complex Novels **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860 "2014-02-08T21:28:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartesian_Rationalist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/1 "2014-02-08T21:28:16Z")
Hello fellow Dopers, I’ve recently acquired a taste for what is sometimes called “post-modern” fiction or meta-fiction, whatever it is called the main features are many charaters, some word play, digressive plots etc. In any case, I like complex novels with multple narratives that offer different perspectives and are unlike other novels. The novels that I like that I have in mind for the purposes of thread orientation are: Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon Underworld by Don DeLillo 2666 by Roberto Bolaño Dhalgren by Samuel Delany Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Europe Central by William T. Vollman The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers The Sot Weed Factor by John Barth House of Leaves by Mark Danilewski Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes The Tunnel by William H. Gass Cloud Atlas by David Mitchel Ulysses by James Joyce And so on. I have read all of Thomas Pynchon and lots of Foster Wallace. For my purposes I like something somewhat more challenging than Murikami, though he is quite good too. On the other hand, I’m not interested in Finnegans Wake. 😛 I like to read and collect this type of fiction, and I am aware of more books like this, but there must be many authors and novels of this vein that I am missing. I like all cultures and backgrounds so it does not have to be Euro-American centric, so any idea would help. Any reccomendations more or less based on the type of books on the list would be much appreciated! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/2 "2014-02-08T21:35:45Z")
You mentioned John Barth’s _The Sot-Weed Factor_; his \*Lost in the Funhouse \*(short) and \*Giles Goat Boy \*(long) would probably please you, too. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/3 "2014-02-08T21:58:47Z")
The Bridge by Iain Banks, as well as lots of other stuff by him, including his Iain M Banks science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/4 "2014-02-08T21:59:58Z")
Also: _Trainspotting_ by Irvine Welsh, and though I haven’t read it yet, _Lanark_ by Alasdair Gray would also appear to fit your requirements. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/5 "2014-02-08T22:11:33Z")
The most meta novel imaginable was actually written 250 years ago: _Tristram Shandy_ by Lawrence Sterne. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/6 "2014-02-08T22:14:41Z")
At this point, I don’t know just how fun or how complex you mean, but let me pitch Carl Hiaasen to you. _Lucky You_ is a good one. Also _Double Whammy, Stormy Weather, Sick Puppy, Native Tongue, Skinny Dip, and Star Island._ All those 6 include Skink, a wonderful character. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/7 "2014-02-08T22:18:24Z")
You might check out “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/8 "2014-02-08T22:19:30Z")
Try China Mieville, especially his Bas-Lag trilogy, _Perdido Street Station_, _The Scar_ and _Iron Council_. ---
**Author:** ![Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartesian_Rationalist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/9 "2014-02-08T22:34:24Z")
Thanks for the recommendations so far, this is the type of stuff I like. AskNott, I know it’s hard to define. I like novels that are challenging force you to try to solve parts of what is going on. I suppose surrealism is an important aspect to it, as are multiple characters. These types of books tend to be un conventional to more typical novels like 1984 or The Stranger. More books of this ilk would be: Hopscotch by Cortazar and on a simpler level the superb Buddha’s Little Finer by Victor Pelevin, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in these things, this book is not too hard, but has some of the aspects of what I like. More examples would be The Name of the Rose by Umberto Ecco, Liminal States by Zach Parsons, The Baroque Cycle Triology by Neal Stephenson which does not have complex sentences, but has a vast array of fiction and historical characters like Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz among others. I suppose I will re-state multiple characters, surrealism and multiple narratives. Although of course, such books need not have all of them, if they can combine 2 of these elements, I suppose it qualifies. But with what I have seen from these recommendations, they look quite accurate.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartesian_Rationalist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/10 "2014-02-08T22:37:03Z")
At a first glimpse Lucky You would fit such a category, I don’t want to be too strict in my definition, but zany plots are a plus. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/11 "2014-02-08T22:48:47Z")
Try [The Gone Away World](http://www.amazon.com/The-Gone-Away-World-Vintage-Contemporaries/dp/0307389073), by Nick Harkaway. It’s got war, and an apocalypse, and kung fu, and mimes. And digressions galore. Plus the best ever analysis of the taxonomy of pencil-necks, and how people ascend the pencil-neck ladder. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/12 "2014-02-08T22:52:21Z")
In the not-so-serious vein, you might look at some of Terry Pratchett’s Diskworld books, especially those with Death as a character, such as _Mort_ or _Reaper Man_. ---
**Author:** ![Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartesian_Rationalist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/13 "2014-02-08T22:58:51Z")
I have the Gone Away World, thanks for that. Yes, Mort look like a type of book I would like. One final author I forgot to mention that I really like is Tom Robbins which are humerous and weird, books like Jitterbug Perfume and Skinny Legs and All. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/14 "2014-02-08T23:33:29Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > You mentioned John Barth’s _The Sot-Weed Factor_; his \*Lost in the Funhouse \*(short) and \*Giles Goat Boy \*(long) would probably please you, too. Barth’s **LETTERS** is a masterpiece of complexity. It does help if you have read all of Barth’s previous works first, but you can manage with just one or two. **LETTERS** ties them all together in a structure that’s about as complex as it gets. The book, subtitled, “an old time epistolary novel by seven fictitious drolls & dreamers each of which imagines himself factual,” is made up of letters by characters in his previous books, plus one by a new character and a seventh by the author himself. The dates of the letters, when put on a calendar turned sideways, spell out the word “LETTERS.” If you take the first letter in each letter and place in on the calendar the day they were written, it spells out the subtitle. The letters are presented to the reader chronologically by the day of the week they were written; thus all the Monday letters are first presented, then the Tuesday ones, etc. (this means things are not necessarily in chronological order). Each day of the week is assigned to one character from Barth’s works. And that’s just the structure. The story is even more complex. The book was not considered a success, but I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![statij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@statij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statij)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/15 "2014-02-09T00:14:05Z")
Your list has a bunch of my favorite books in it and I recently found and LOVED A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava. I think it fits well, although not exactly difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/16 "2014-02-09T00:17:12Z")
Try[Dalva](http://www.amazon.com/Dalva-Contemporary-Classics-Washington-Square/dp/0671740679/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391904964&sr=8-1&keywords=Dalva) and [the Road Home](http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Home-Jim-Harrison/dp/0671778331/ref=pd_sim_b_1) They are exactly this: > [@](#): > > In any case, I like complex novels with multple narratives that offer different perspectives and are unlike other novels. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/17 "2014-02-09T01:10:21Z")
Susanna Clarke’s _Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell_ is big, engrossing, and has extensive footnotes. It’s about the return of magic to Regency England - almost as if Jane Austen wrote a Harry Potter book. Highly recommended. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/18 "2014-02-09T01:23:35Z")
Would Neal Stephenson’s _[Cryptonomicon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon)_ qualify? > [@](#): > > **Genre and subject matter** > > In 2000, _Cryptonomicon_ was nominated for the Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke Awards and won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.[1] _Cryptonomicon_ later won the Mir Fantastiki award for best foreign (i.e., non-Russian) sci-fi novel in 2005. The book has been acclaimed as “the ultimate geek novel”.[2] In 2013, \*Cryptonomicon \*won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. > > _Cryptonomicon_ is closer to the genres of historical fiction and contemporary techno-thriller than to the science fiction of Stephenson’s two previous novels, _Snow Crash_ and _Diamond Age_. It features fictionalized characterizations of such historical figures as Alan Turing, Albert Einstein, Douglas MacArthur, Winston Churchill, Isoroku Yamamoto, Karl Dönitz, and Ronald Reagan, as well as some highly technical and detailed descriptions of modern cryptography and information security, with discussions of prime numbers, modular arithmetic, and Van Eck phreaking. ---
**Author:** ![Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Cartesian\_Rationalist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartesian_Rationalist)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/19 "2014-02-09T10:29:51Z")
Yes Cryptonomican would qualify. Good feedback, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860/20 "2014-02-09T15:30:42Z")
You mentioned _The Name of the Rose_, but _Foucault’s Pendulum_ sounds closer to the type of book you’re looking for. Then, of course, there’s _The Sound and the Fury_ by William Faulkner, though that may edge too close to Joyce territory. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-fun-and-complex-novels/680860.md?page=2)