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.

  • pebrudite@alien.top
    BEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Check out Donald Barthelme’s “Forty Stories” for a creative look at what short stories can be. From the wiki page:

    Many last for fewer than five pages, and display Barthelme’s flash fictional tendencies. They also abound in historical references and surreal juxtapositions. One story involves a World War I Secret Police investigator, a trio of German warplanes, and the artist Paul Klee. Another is a parodic rewriting of the fairy-tale Bluebeard, perhaps inspired by Angela Carter’s story “The Bloody Chamber.” Yet another consists of a single seven-page-long sentence (without a concluding period).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Stories

    • trudyisagooddog@alien.top
      BEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I really like Barthelme too. His collection 60 Stories is most excellent, not sure if there is any overlap with 40 Stories. His writing is a mix of cognizant coherence and the utterly bizarre. I am astounded by the creativity and intelligence at play in his work. His best stories hit hard emotionally as well. Having grown up reading Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins, I am surprised I had never heard of Barthelme though reading him now feels like a natural progression.