Hello! This feels, in a way, conceited but it’s my question! I have been reading a lot lately, some very intelligent authors, with very thoughtful characters, Like Dostoevsky, Camus, Baldwin, Morrison… It does seem though these characters fall into the realm of my own binary reasoning, where i tend to agree with them on most things and, I’m not sure if the things i disagree with are based in reality… i wonder if there are books, (i like literary fiction but for this sake i would read nonfiction), that glimpse into the world that I don’t quite understand, the world of thoughtless and selfish people? To help my understanding of what the heck is going on in the world around me.
I hope this question makes sense! Thank you for reading this!
If I’ve understood this right, you’re particularly looking for recognisable, everyday nastiness? A really neat fit for that might be women writers from socially conservative settings where women had to be adept at navigating human foibles, and consequently produced brilliant descriptions of them.
The first that comes to mind is Jane Austen! She’s brilliant at drawing flawed characters that feel like real people you might meet today, not just caricatures that would only make sense to Regency readers. Emma is probably the most flawed of the heroines themselves, but every novel has a strong cast of deliciously awful and often rather daft people.
Some early 20th century Chinese writers would fit the bill too, particularly Eileen Cheng. I’d recommend Sealed Off as an introduction - it’s a stunning, very short story about two self-absorbed people meeting during a transport blockade. Love in a Fallen City and Lust, Caution are also amazing. She has a very bitter view of human relationships but it’s always well-observed and compelling.
Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet looks at an intense, complex friendship between two women in mid 20th century Naples. In this one both leads are academically brilliant, but it might still be a good fit (there are many different ways to be stupid after all!) There is again a large cast of very human, sometimes awful characters.