Books like Finnegans Wake
12 books with a reading profile close to Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. Deep, open-ended and thought-provoking; a demanding read.
-
1
The Waste Land and Other Poems
by T.S. Eliot
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Published in the wake of the First World War, this collection centers on the psychological and cultural fragmentation of Western society.
-
2
Ulysses
by James Joyce
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Set in Dublin on June 16, 1904, the narrative follows Leopold Bloom, an ordinary Jewish advertisement canvasser, as he moves through the city’s streets, pubs, and cemeteries.
-
3
Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
The story follows a nameless teenager known only as the kid, a runaway from Tennessee who joins the Glanton gang along the Texas-Mexico borderlands in the late 1840s.
-
4
Gravity’s Rainbow
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Set against the end of World War II, the narrative tracks Tyrone Slothrop, an American lieutenant in London whose sexual encounters appear to predict the landing sites of German V-2 rockets.
-
5
Absalom, Absalom!
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Thomas Sutpen arrives in Mississippi in 1833 with a group of enslaved people and a plan to create a vast plantation called Sutpen’s Hundred.
-
6
2666
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
The narrative follows five interconnected parts, beginning with four European academics tracking the reclusive German novelist Benno von Archimboldi.
-
7
The Crying of Lot 49
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Oedipa Maas is appointed executor of the estate of Pierce Inverarity, a California real estate mogul and her former lover.
-
8
Pale Fire
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Vladimir Nabokov’s 1962 novel is structured as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire," written by the fictional American poet John Shade, followed by a lengthy line-by-line commentary.
-
9
The Waste Land
by T.S. Eliot
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
The Waste Land presents a fragmented vision of Europe following the First World War, utilizing a collage of classical mythology, religious texts, and urban vignettes.
-
10
The Satanic Verses
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Two Indian expatriates, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, survive a mid-air plane explosion over the English Channel and undergo startling physical transformations.
-
11
Hopscotch
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Horacio Oliveira, an Argentine intellectual living in Paris, wanders with a group of artist friends, the Serpent Club, and his lover La Maga, discussing jazz, art and metaphysics.
-
12
The Sound and the Fury
Also deep and open-ended · dense, literary
Set in early twentieth-century Mississippi, this novel documents the decline of the Compson family, a former aristocratic household now facing financial and moral ruin.
Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.
Get papr
