I learned about The Third Policemen from this community and loved it. Give me some more.

thanks.

  • Wertheimer [any]
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    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Hey, that may have been me who recommended it. Awesome.

    I wish I could say I had a dozen more books in that vein but there's really nothing that is perfectly comparable. Something else that comes to mind as a weird, propulsive narrative with a logic all its own, however, is Tom McCarthy's Remainder. Maybe Jean-Pierre Toussaint's early work would suit you, too - Monsieur, The Bathroom, etc. That's just me trying to remember other unconventional novels I read around the same time I picked up The Third Policeman, though, I don't know that they'd hold up as "similar" under more detailed scrutiny.

    De Selby shows up as a character in another work of Flann O'Brien's, The Dalkey Archive, but that one didn't do it for me the way Third Policeman did. Still clever as hell, though. At Swim-Two-Birds is a bit too metafictional, but plenty of people who aren't me absolutely swear by it.

    Dalkey Archive Press is named after the O'Brien novel, and they publish all sorts of amazing, weird, experimental fiction. David Markson? Alasdair Gray? Jon Fosse? Michal Ajvaz?

    What are some other novels you've especially enjoyed?

    I also second @marxisthayaca 's Bolaño recommendation.

    (Edit - I see that there are several people on this site who have recommended The Third Policeman, which pleases me greatly.)

    Another edit, to add The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares.

    • chauncey [he/him]
      hexagon
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      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Thanks! The Invention of Morel looks interesting.

      Some other novels I've recently enjoyed (aside from third policeman): White Noise - DeLillo, Blindness - Saramago, Piranesi - Clarke, Timequake - Vonnegut

      • Wertheimer [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        i haven't read Piranesi yet but the reviews reminded me of John Crowley's Little, Big. May have just been the way the geography of the house was described.

        From DeLillo, an easy jump to Pynchon. The Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice are the best starting points.

        Saramago's great - I need to read more of his. Everything that I have read from before he won the Nobel is damned good. My favorite is The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, which will also make you want to read Fernando Pessoa. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is powerful - he has a couple of interpretive twists that really make it stand out among life-of-Jesus novels. If you want to further explore Portuguese fiction, check out Antonio Lobo Antunes. I don't know where the best starting place is for him. Although many or most of his novels are in English, I have a hard time finding them, but perhaps your library is better than mine.