The Weird and the Wise: 7 Experimental Literary Novels
James Joyce. Virginia Woolf. David Foster Wallace. They all wrote literary fiction in a weird way, experimenting with language, character, and perspective to create fascinating works that require some brains to get to the heart of. But once you’re there, the treasure you find is beautiful. These seven new novels are both experimental and entertaining, playing with words to weave surreal stories and to reveal enlightening wisdom.
The Man with the Overcoat by David Finkle (Nth Position Press)
Edward “Skip” Gerber, a thirty-seven-year-old real estate lawyer, unwittingly embarks on an life-changing adventure when he emerges from an elevator and a mysterious stranger hands him an overcoat. Gerber sets out following clues in order to return the coat to its owner, which leads him on a trail throughout New York City. David Finkle’s The Man with the Overcoat is a satisfying, surreal tale wrapped in a taut, neo-noir package.
The King of the Sea Monkeys by Mark E. Cull (Guernica Eidtions)
Looking both intellectually and intimately at a life unraveling, Mark E. Cull’s The King of the Sea Monkeys is in turns surreal, clever, and sad. A complex narrative style reflects the brokenness of a man recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. It goes down paths seldom traveled to provide a philosophical and emotional look at a wounded mind.
Nonprofit by Matt Burriesci (New Issues Poetry & Prose)
Nonprofit bristles with the kind of insight that develops when literary talent and jaded objectivity occur in the same place. The nonsense universe of charity fund-raisers, where a dinner for a good cause costs more money than it brings in, is so absurd and tragic that the only option is to laugh. Sardonic and painfully entertaining, Nonprofit is gallows humor for the public sector.
Ari Figue’s Cat by Jacob Russell (Deep Sett Press)
An experiment in poetic prose, nonlinear scenes, and even font style, this novel offers a tale of a vibrant city full of mystery. Ari Figue’s Cat is Jacob Russell’s deep, perplexing novel of finding love in the least likely of places, and its complexity will either enthrall or completely alienate readers. But for those who enjoy experimental literature, this book will entertain.
Entrevoir by Chris Katsaropoulos (Luminis Books)
A work as conceptual as the protagonist’s art, Entrevoir, by Chris Katsaropoulous, tells the story of an artist who grapples with a recent decision to relocate from New York to the French countryside to make what he considers his masterwork. The book deals with issues of art and its audience, and the artist and his ego. Elements present in the protagonist’s artwork shift the focus of the story to a hallucinogenic trip as he attains enlightenment.
The Pinch by Steve Stern (Graywolf Press)
Traveling to a foreign land can be both enchanting and overwhelming, as is Steve Stern’s latest foray into the madcap yet melancholy Memphis neighborhood he introduced in his award-winning short-story collection, The Book of Mischief. Stern welcomes readers back to the eccentric Jewish quarter of North Main Street through the doors of Avrom Slutsky’s dust-laden bookstore, The Book Asylum, where a young Lenny Sklarew uncovers a lavishly illustrated history of the community. Crafted to blur the boundaries between what’s real and what’s not, this fascinating tale depicts a fanciful past that’s both weird and enchanting.
Watch the Shadows by Robin Winter (White Whisker Books)
The sight of a plastic grocery bag drifting on the wind is common all over, but in Isla Vista it has taken on a truly menacing tone. The crows have left Freedom Park, the duck population is dwindling, and even the homeless are starting to disappear. In Watch the Shadows, Robin Winter gives the ordinary detritus of life a horrific spin. Impressionistic writing invites the imagination into this sci-fi mystery with idiosyncratic characters.
Aimee Jodoin is deputy editor at Foreword Reviews. You can follow her on Twitter @aimeebeajo.
Aimee Jodoin
