Which books are told in the most interesting / creative/ mind bending ways? How does it add to the book overall?

My all time favourite is Ella Minnow Pea where the book is a series of letters. The characters have to think of more inventive ways to write their letters as an increasing number of letters are outlawed as the book progresses.

Honourable mentions include:

Maribou Stork Nightmares where the narrator is trying to suppress his dark past by allowing himself to slip into hallucinations of a whacky south African safari adventure.

Flowers for Algernon where the narrator becomes more articulate by taking part in a scientific experiment.

  • jstnpotthoff@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    It’s been forever since I’ve read either of these, but {{the Tattooed Map}} by Barbara Hodgson was beautifully laid out. A sort of travelogue narrative with many images and inscriptions throughout. I gave it ⭐⭐⭐

    But the absolutely most inventive is Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton. It’s literally an auction catalog with no traditional narration. I also gave it ⭐⭐⭐

    In Leanne Shapton’s marvelously inventive and invented auction catalog, the 325 lots up for auction are what remain from the relationship between Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris (who aren’t real people, but might as well be). Through photographs of the couple’s personal effects-the usual auction items (jewelry, fine art, and rare furniture) and the seemingly worthless (pajamas, Post-it notes, worn paperbacks)-the story of a failed love affair vividly (and cleverly) emerges. From first meeting to final separation, the progress and rituals of intimacy are revealed through the couple’s accumulated relics and memorabilia. And a love story, in all its tenderness and struggle, emerges from the evidence that has been left behind, laid out for us to appraise and appreciate.

    Honorable mention, because I haven’t read it yet, but Dark Factory by Kathe Koja is supposed to be an immersive experience. I bought it from her website and it even included a perfumed paper of a scent from the book.