What are some books that you found interesting to read, but were also very confronting?

Submitted by ssunnysidesup t3_yenqn4 in books

As an example, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov or No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. Both respected as well-written books, but both cover very dark subject matter. Lolita has some wonderful, lyrical writing and some great prose, and the main characters are written well. However, it is obviously a very dark book, and the main character, Humbert Humbert’s lust for Dolores makes the entire read feel like a stone sitting at the pit of your stomach. No Longer Human, again, is well-written, with a protagonist you can sympathise and even empathise with. Despite its obvious lyricism of writing, it doesn’t try to sugarcoat any of the experiences of the main character. What makes it more chilling is the fact that it is semi-autobiographical and was written shortly before the author committed suicide. What other books, classics or otherwise, are similarly beautifully-written yet disturbing or dark, and why?

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fingersonlips t1_itz5pt5 wrote

Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

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congradulations t1_iu1as62 wrote

This is my best answer too. Deeply, DEEPLY depressing, bleak, but with brilliant prose that is both worldly and intensely vivid. Come for the dark journey through the heart of darkness, stay for the masterful narration (with a single, subtle shift)

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SnarkDolphin t1_iu27hx6 wrote

I was about to pick up a copy of The Passenger today but I just read Blood Meridian last week so I think I need to decompress a bit before I bite into any more McCarthy

I can’t imagine the past few decades has made a terminally aging Cormac McCarthy’s view on the nature of humanity any sunnier. Early reviews seem to be that it’s another masterwork though so I’m excited to eventually get around to it

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trollkonto94 t1_itz1ouw wrote

"Kindly ones" by Jonathan Littel. The protagonist is a gay SS officer.

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idyllicideal t1_itzm1lk wrote

East of Eden by John Steinbeck. The writing comforted me, and the plot and the characters were all very interesting. The way they acted, their reasonings and upbringings, morals, desires, personalities… I’ve never been so intrigued by ALL the characters in a book before this book.

I really like the quote, “We should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.” It really motivates me.

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congradulations t1_iu1ac4t wrote

East of Eden is one of those mystifying rides where you lose yourself in the drive, but remember dozens of beautiful scenes and landscapes. Quotable AF, basically.

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SollicitusOwl t1_itzpguv wrote

I am a Cat by Natsume Sōseki, the story is incredibly well written and it tugs at your heart strings especially at the end. It’s about a cat with no name and him going through his whole life. You will fall in love with the cat and laugh a little. Give it a try

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ssunnysidesup OP t1_iu1afkl wrote

I’ve been looking into it since it was mentioned in No Longer Human, since I thought it might have similar themes

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MarzannaMorena t1_ityymsa wrote

A World Apart by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński. It really give you perspective on human psyche in extreme circumstances as well as to what ends human can go to survive. The most horrific thing is the fact that it was complitly based on real events.

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SprigBar t1_itzbftq wrote

War and War by Lazlo Krasznahorkai. A Hungarian archivist, Gyorgi Korin, wants to immortalise a beautiful manuscript he found at work by copying it onto an internet homepage; he sets out to do this in what is, in his opinion, the very centre of the world, New York! Korin spends the second third of this book explaining the contents of this wonderful manuscript, and it's five reoccurring characters, to his landlord's lover. He struggles to find a meaning in its contents and I found, as the reader, that I shared this experience with him. The more he divulged into its contents, the more he wanted to solve its mystery, the deeper my own curiosity became.

Korin's only other goal in life is, in stark contrast to the wonderment of his manuscript, to kill himself. He is not a confident person, he struggles to communicate, at least without blabbing on and on in sentences that never seem to end (such is the usual style of Krasznahorkai, but to this end these long sentences really emphasize Korin's obsessive talking), and this alienates him from others quite drastically. He knows exactly when he lost his mind and when his memory became redundant and ineffective, but he feels like he can't end his life until the world gets to experience the beauty of the work he has found.

His ignorance of the world, and especially of the world outside of Hungary, leads him to being overly trusting of others; as well, his inability to properly speak/ understand the English language he finds himself lost in a hostile world that is only out to hurt him, exploit him and make him feel isolated from any semblance of human affection. The last third of this book is an absolute rollercoaster that I will not spoil. Korin might be mad, but he is a soft character with no inherent malice in him, at least towards anyone except for himself. Amongst the many things that I might or might not understand about this book, one thing is certain and that is how cruel the world can be to the lost and afraid.

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MorriganJade t1_itzql9w wrote

Basically every Octavia Butler book, I love them so much. The most famous is kindred which is about real life slavery but it is not the most intese, I love all of them but the really soul crushing ones are probably Wild Seed (and the patternist series in general) and The whole Xenogenesis series (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago). They all have themes of slavery and doing your best to survive and find a way out while utterly powerless, forced to deal with terrible things knowing that even dying would not change anything and so adapting to a terrible situation. There's usually a protagonist that values freedom, ethics, being a good parent, their people, and then a kind of coloniser character who has all the power and enslaves them, making them do all the things they would do anything to stop but they know that even if they died those things would still happen so they survive and try to do some damage control but ultimately they can't win

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lordoftheborg t1_itz561s wrote

Darkness at Noon, also based on true events but some of how things are explained make terrible actions almost seem reasonable.

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Abu_Hajaar666 t1_iu1a7k5 wrote

HST's Hell's Angels is one. That almost-omniscient narration leaves a whole lot of room for self-questioning and examination, things like "Huh, would I really do this if I could? Is it weird to think that's fun?" etc. It's a little dive into two psyches, the reader's and the Angel's, and that's what makes it relatively dark.

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Sea_Pearl t1_iu0uloq wrote

Tender Is the Flesh was a very interesting read because of the world building. The author introduces the reader to a world where animals have been eradicated due to a disease and humans have been genetically modified and are consumed as "special meat". The writing is direct from the very beginning right up until the end. It's extremely descriptive about what is done in the farms and how desensitized the workers are to killing and butchering people. It really plays into the darkest part of humanity which when given the freedom is monstrous and knows no bounds. The ending was especially hard to read because the reader realizes that the main character is an unreliable narrator and that even though at the beginning he seems to loathe his job he is just as complacent and cruel as everyone else if not more.

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ssunnysidesup OP t1_iu1aspq wrote

I’ve heard of that one! I’ve considered it but I might never sleep again if I do read it haha

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Ok_Cauliflower6485 t1_itzv9f9 wrote

Sula by Toni Morrison. Brilliant but so unsettling in ways I've never encountered in a book before or after.

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macroscian t1_iu00j65 wrote

There's a poem by Michael Strunge where the character finds freedom stepping out of a window, foreshadowing the poet's own death.

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oznrobie t1_iu03pgd wrote

A Moveable Feast

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voivoivoi183 t1_iu0f7xw wrote

I read Voices From the Holocaust, a book containing the stories of survivors. Very interesting to read about what happened from real people’s perspectives but also very grim and super depressing. One account has stuck in my mind of a young girl who was marched miles to a field in the middle of nowhere with a load of other people, made them dig a trench, made them all strip naked and shot them all and dumped their bodies in the trench. Somehow she survived being shot and had to hide for hours in the pile of dead bodies of people she knew, waiting for the nazis to leave and eventually she climbed out and had to try and find help, alone and naked and absolutely terrified. The sense of dread was palpable. An absolutely devastating story.

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existentialepicure t1_iu0thdj wrote

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. It confronts European colonialism and Christian missionaries, but is also critical of aspects of African culture (toxic masculinity, certain violent traditions) in the 19th century.

It's very interesting and a book I revisit often.

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Abu_Hajaar666 t1_iu1bg2i wrote

One of my favorite books fr. Analyzing the cultures of the Ibgo and Europeans is a real battle when you also have to try to dismiss presentism.

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Chicachikka t1_iu1cfma wrote

Oh boy…Death in Venice

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elmonoenano t1_iu1hp8c wrote

I read Turning of the Screw immediately after that and totally missed that it was a ghost story. A Death in Venice totally primed my mind. I thought the TotS was about child molestation until the very very end and I'm still not sure it isn't.

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Chicachikka t1_iu1v496 wrote

I could see that i think. If you liked “The Turn of the Screw” try Joyce Carol Oates, “The Cursed Inhabitants of Bly” its a twist on that story.

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mountainzntreez t1_iu1ho3b wrote

I'd have to say We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. It depicts a truly awful parenthood and every time you think it gets better, it never does. The writing style is quite difficult, but after having read it, I'd say that the way the narrator speaks is very fitting to the book so don't let that scare you off. It took me over a month to read this book because I needed to step away from it sometimes to take a breather. When I was done, I didn't quite know how I felt about it because, on the one hand, it was so disturbing, and on the other hand, it was so real (horrifyingly so). I read a few reviews on GoodReads which surprised me a lot. Many people have such a dislike for this book, but when I read the reviews they dislike it because of how well it does what it set out to do and that these people were so disturbed or hurt that they gave it a bad review - at least that is what it felt like to me.

There are many trigger warnings that apply to this book that I will leave out of this post to avoid any spoilers. I hope that the readers of this thread realize that many of these books will have a lot of trigger warnings and look these up if they feel the need to.

Some themes in this book are: parenthood, lost dreams, and troubled teens

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BimboBagiins t1_iu1kl85 wrote

Clockwork orange, one flew over the cuckoos nest, fight club, flowers for Algernon, and love in the time of cholera are all kinds along those lines you are looking for

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blackeyedpeass t1_iu2few9 wrote

The Secret History - way casual and comedic about really dark themes

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LorenzoApophis t1_iu115k6 wrote

After the First Death by Robert Cormier

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Dazzling-Ad4701 t1_iu1gh6b wrote

Most of early John Irving. I'm over him but he deserves a lot of credit imo.

Laurie colwin. Really appealing novels, challenge just about all my assumptions and received ethics on love and relationships, though.

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ChazzingitupatStoa t1_iu1v2kp wrote

In recent memory I'd say Neither Wolf Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn. It's about a American white man going to a Lakota reservation to help an elderly man write a book. Despite trying to help, he gets met with anger and distrust the whole book as its central backdrop is the effects of American imperialism and genocide on Indigenous people.

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UrbanIronBeam t1_iu1vvah wrote

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

An incredibly good read that will make you feel incredibly terrible about humanity.

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UrbanIronBeam t1_iu1w3au wrote

... and for non-fiction. Homo Deux is up there, I was left with a very--my grandkids are f'ed--kind of feeling.

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Background-Touch1198 t1_iu35n9b wrote

Wuthering Heights

Hangwoman

Ice candy Man [this would not let you sleep]

Moustache [translated from Malayalam this one is extremely uncomfortable]

Wide Saragasso Sea

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SuccotashCareless934 t1_iu3i9m4 wrote

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. My god. I read Convenience Store Woman by her and LOVED it - a cute, quirky story about rejecting societal expectations. Earthlings is in a similar vein but includes child abuse, paedophilia (some of the text made me squirm in my seat), and cannibalism. Absolutely bonkers.

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ssunnysidesup OP t1_iujs0bc wrote

Wow, I had no idea it was that grotesque. I know friends who’ve read it and didn’t like it, but I may have to give it a try anyway!

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SmurfyTurf t1_iu1cu6a wrote

One Second After by William Forstchen.

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translate_this t1_iu1jy8k wrote

Tampa by Alissa Nutting. It's like Lolita, but incredibly explicit and with the sexual abuse being initiated by a 26-year-old female teacher.

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darthvirgin t1_iu0fy4h wrote

*confrontational.

In English you can’t say “very present participle verb”. Well, you can, but it’s pretty broken English. Imagine saying “my day was very walking”.

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NebulousStar t1_iu0xkuw wrote

In American English. However, "confronting" is commonly used as an adjective in other countries.

Edit: It's usage is similar to "upsetting" in the US, but the meaning is more like "profoundly upsetting" or "disturbing".

Another edit: Actually, we do this all the time. For instance, you might go on a tour. You might also go on a walking tour.

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darthvirgin t1_iu1vqyi wrote

“Walking” in that context is a gerund, where the verb acts as a noun, BTW.

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ssunnysidesup OP t1_iu1apsg wrote

The books aren’t confrontational though. They are confronting. That’s a different word with a slightly different meaning. Confronting is an adjective. There’s no need to be pedantic.

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