Can you recommend a character-driven, introspective novel?
Asked by
Haleth (
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November 26th, 2015
I’m looking on goodreads and amazon also, but this is a know it when you see it kind of thing. When I’ve found books like this before, it’s been by accident while browsing in the library.
One of my favorite novels is “Half Broken Things” by Morag Joss. It’s described as a mystery/suspense novel, but it’s really a quiet character piece. The main characters are three people who are very lost. There’s a young pregnant woman who has lived here and there and is just scraping by; a professional house-sitter at the end of a long and dreary career; and a con artist with clinical depression who can barely pay the bills. They come together sort of by accident and form a really lovely found family. The house-sitter is the “mother” of the group, and they take over a mansion that she’s watching, eating the food, drinking up the wine cellar, wearing the clothes, making renovations, planting trees etc.
Another one of my favorites is “By Chance” by Martin Corrick. A 60something widower travels to a mysterious island and reflects on his life and decisions. Partway through you learn what those decisions actually were, and it comes completely out of the left field- a big “wham” moment.
Both of these books seem kind of boring when you describe them. A lot of the reviews on goodreads are people complaining about how boring they are and how they could barely get through them. But I loved each of these for how they delve into the seemingly quiet lives of these characters and there’s real substance underneath. It’s wonderful to read the inner thoughts of a fully fleshed-out fictional character. I find that kind of thing incredibly compelling, even if book itself doesn’t seem terribly eventful.
Recs?
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11 Answers
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing pops to mind. Almost anything by her qualifies.
The classic “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” by Betty Smith. I discovered the novel when I was age 14, and I’ve re-read it every year since then. It still makes me feel joy and, at times, sob uncontrollably.
A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. It sounds sweet and innocent by the title, but the story, even though it is written from the perspective of a child, is not childish at all. It is deep, and warm, and sad, and vivid and satisfying with every single word. You will see what he sees, think what he thinks, and feel what he feels.
I read this for the first time last Christmas. It was way more than I ever expected.
Two candidates enter my mind. The first one is Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason. It’s a mystery novel telling two separate plots. One is about a detective trading the origin of a skeleton found in a garden I’m not sure about that, I read it a long time ago, and the other is about a woman suffering from an over-abusive husband. As a mystery novel, I’m not very impressed, but as a deep character-driven novel, it’s an excellent one. The whole story is driven by every character’s thought and feeling. The thoughts are so detailed.
The second one is The Past is Another Country by Gianrico Carofiglio. Again it is divided into two plots, one about a frustrated students befriending a seemingly “cool” boy and getting too sucked into his world, the other about a police detective trying to solve a string of rape. Again I’m not impressed by the suspense element, but if you want something deep, it fits the bill.
I absolutely love recommending
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier.
I hesitate to give a synopsis, because the story unfolds so beautifully on its own and I would hate to ruin that.
I literally tripped over this book at the library, started reading it, tore myself away long enough to check it out and drive home, and then did not stop reading until I hit the back cover.
@Seek that sounds like an amazing book according to the reviews on Amazon. I just bought it there and then
For my book club we read Room by Emma Donoghue which for me was quite a claustrophobic tale of a young woman kidnapped and imprisoned told from the perspective of her son, fathered by the kidnapper.
The Art of Racing in the Rain was a book I could not put down.
For a study in obsession, there’s always the oldie-but-goodie “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier. It still holds up after all these years.
If you’re a fan of the quirky, you can try “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” by Peter Hoeg. I didn’t like it nearly as much as I thought I would but you might.
And if you like the heroic and kind of tear-jerker, there’s “Death Be Not Proud” by John Gunther. (although it’s non-fiction so perhaps not what you’re looking for.)
Ah—and thinking of Rebecca reminds me of My Cousin Rachel, in which I thought du Maurier outdid herself. I also recommend The Scapegoat, her treatment of the Doppelgänger theme.
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