Super-Literary HF

[Margaret]

Does anybody here read the super-literary type of historical fiction? I'm not thinking so much of novels like Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, which was certainly literary but used a pretty standard storytelling format. I'm thinking more of the novel I just read, The Elephant's Journey by Portuguese writer José Saramago (see review), and other novels that play around with an unusual storytelling style. The Elephant's Journey is told chronologically, but it's a very untraditional narrative in other respects. The closest I can come to describing the style is stream-of-consciousness, but the narrator isn't any of the characters - it seems to be the author himself, because he knows about events later in history than the 16th century journey of the story and makes side comments from time to time when such later events are relevant in some way; he's mostly an observer, but slips into the story in a mystical sort of way at one point. There are no quotation marks for dialogue and almost no paragraph breaks, which might have turned the novel into a wallbanger for me, except that the voice is so witty and interesting.

Another novel that would fit into this category might be The Devil's Dream, a novel about Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest (see review). It uses a less traditional storytelling style by departing from the convention of telling the story more-or-less chronologically. Instead, it moves around in time, mainly circling around one crucial, traumatic event. Again, I wouldn't normally enjoy a novel told in a non-chronological style, but this one worked brilliantly for me.

It's hard for me to think of very many more. Contemporary novels may be a lot more likely to use unusual literary structures than historicals. Has anyone here read others? Enjoyed them? Wallbanged them?

[MLE (Emily Cotton)]

The only one I can think of is Bridge over San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. In his novel, a Peruvian priest sees a hanging bridge breaking and five people get flung into the abyss. So in order to find out why God chose just those five people, at just that moment, he goes to research the lives of all five.
I don't know if I enjoyed it or not. I read it in high school as and example of a converging plot style -- but I don't think I've ever read any others of that style. I suppose your Civil War novel might be another of those.

Usually if a book has any scent of artsy or contrived, I avoid it. I want fiction to be fiction, straight up. I read plenty of other things for morals, philosophy, and information.

[Ludmilla]

If you liked The Elephant's Journey, you should definitely check out Saramago's Baltasar and Blimunda. It's been over a decade since I read it, but it's on my list of books I need to re-read in order to gain a better understanding of what I read to begin with. Haunting, haunting imagery!

Some others that come to mind:
Vonnegut's Slaugthehouse-Five (WWII)

Some of Louise Erdrich's books might qualify. Quite a few of them open with tales from previous generations that have had momentous consequences for the current (contemporary) generation. The Antelope Wife is a good example of one. The threads of the past are very much alive in the present.

Several by Italo Calvino: To start with, The Castle of Cross Destinies (a Chaucer-like structure to the story with travelers' stories told via tarot cards) or Invisible Cities (conversations between Marco Polo and Kubla Khan interspersed with interludes about the cities -- Calvino is quite fond of playing around with stories within stories).

[Divia]

Nah. I just want the commerical stuff.

[wendy]

I love anything and everything by Toni Morrison. Have any of you read her Paradise? It's artsy and difficult - but what a buzz it gives me everytime I re-read it.

[Michy]

I've read very little in the way of literary works, so I guess I would have to say it's probably not my cuppa tea -- like MLE, I like my reading material to be pretty straightforward. As for "super-literary" -- if I ever ventured to try something in that category it would probably fly against the wall within the first few pages.

[MLE (Emily Cotton)]

I read her Song of Solomon and it was interesting. Since the venue was so different for me from the get-go (Black urban culture in an East-coast city--which is a culture shock in itself, compared to easy-going west-coast urban areas) set in the early part of the last century.

I enjoyed it, although I never could quite figure out what it was that the slave ancestor, Solomon, actually DID--or didn't he? Fantasy or metaphor? But I do remember it, and considering it's been more than twenty years, that's one thing in its favor.

[Margaret]

Some of Louise Erdrich's books might qualify. Quite a few of them open with tales from previous generations that have had momentous consequences for the current (contemporary) generation. The Antelope Wife is a good example of one. The threads of the past are very much alive in the present.

I like Erdrich. She's certainly a literary writer, but I don't know that I'd call her super-literary in the sense of violating the usual storytelling norms. Your mention of her reminds me of another novel I keep meaning to reread and review: Grass Dancer by Susan Power. It's a kind of family saga, but instead of going from the first generation to the next and on down the line, it starts with a girl's life in the present on a Sioux Indian reservation, and goes backwards to her mother, then her grandmother, and so on. Non-chronological novels can be confusing, but I didn't find this one confusing at all. The structure made a lot of sense to me, because we do tend to experience our family history in reverse like this.

I loved Toni Morrison's Beloved. It's perfectly chronological and doesn't omit any of the normal structural stuff like quotation marks and paragraph breaks. What makes it super-literary is the way it suggests the ghostly presence of the main character's dead daughter. I wouldn't call it a fantasy novel at all, because there's not a speck of romanticism in it, and I wouldn't even call it magical realism - it just doesn't have that tone. But it's definitely surreal, and chillingly so.

I read something by Calvino that was a spin on the Tristan & Isolde legend. It was interesting in some ways, but I didn't really care for it, because it never hooked me emotionally. Yes, I'd say he's weird enough to fit the super-literary category!

[G. Alvin Simons]

I've read Baudolino & The Name of the Rose & didn't understand either one. That's usually a good sign for me that it's "literary."

[Kveto from Prague]

i loved Bauldolino, especially the first chapter. but it really is a mindshag I remember trying to explain what it was about without giving away details. almost impossible.

I was thinking about this topic recently too, margaret. how few hf stories are told in non-linear fashion. i guess its a product of the medium of history