Quote:
Originally Posted by wolverinewolfweiselpigeon
(Post 1758800)
When I picked that book up I was so engrossed that the whole world around me ceased to exist. I read it three times in a row over a weekend and it's the last book I've read that really shook me emotionally. If you have any recommendations for something similar I'm all ears!
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^ Yes, I also loved this unique book; it's so neatly constructed and has some very moving moments, as when, quite early on, Miss Kinnian has to run out to the ladies room. That gets me every time! I still remember the first time I finished the book, aged about 15 and impelled to go for a walk to let the story percolate through my mind.
I'm always intrigued by the diary format - the idea that we'll see the intimate workings of someone's mind - and a much shorter fictional diary is Gogol's
Diary of a Madman , although it doesn't have the emotional wallop of
Flowers For Algernon. Alternatively, if you want the real thing, there is August Strindberg's
From An Occult Diary.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
(Post 1758803)
From my list, honestly, Frankenstein. It's unfortunate that movies have so colored people's perception of this story because the book is so much more than all that. It's complex and emotionally frought and pretty heartbreaking. In many ways, the monster is analogous to Charlie as a freakish outsider who is tragically self-aware.
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^ That's an interesting connection that I might follow up on given the chance, never having read Frankenstein.
For a book as powerful as
Flowers For Algernon, I can recommend the first book on my list,
The Solid Mandala. The writing is more dense and convoluted, but it also explores the life of outsiders. In this case, the lives of two drab people who wouldn't usually merit a second glance are meticulously examined. The author shows us that despite the trappings of mediocrity, their lives are full of unguessed-at wonder and drama. Even though I take it slowly, perhaps ten pages a day, I've read
The Solid Mandala about five times; it's one of those few books that has discernably affected who I am today because of its underlying messages - about the conflict between the heart and the head, and about the worth of the ordinary person.
