Transgressive fiction

[LanceRomance]

I have started getting in to transgressive fiction lately.

So far I have read plenty of Bukowski, just finished American Psycho and I am now halfway in to Fightclub.

I have less than zero on the book shelf...

Was hoping for recommendations?

 

[ChubbMuff]

I have read some Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting, Ecstasy, Marabou Stork Nightmares, The Acid House) and Ellis (American Psycho, Less than Zero, Glamorama). Welsh can be a hoot once you absorb the language and get rolling with it, The Acid House is a collection of short stories and an excellent place to start, E is longer stories but also good. He can get very dark however but the man has lived and I have always found his writing to be authentic. He can be piss funny one minute and shocking the next, the ending of Marabou is heart stopping. Trainspotting is a blast, the main character Renton is heaps more of a prick than he is portrayed in the film - bangs his dead brother's wife at the wake.

Ellis is excellent in the sense that he reels me in with his stream of consciousness style and pace, however his books get just too much at times for my taste. Glamorama literally becomes another novel in an instant - real smack in the face stuff. Less Than Zero is brilliant but very bleak and austere at the end, again there is a prevailing sense of menace is the novel that builds throughout. The level of detachment of the main character to his life in general and the behaviour of his peers blew me out by the end. Ellis can be tough to read but I found the ones I read to be worthwhile. Entertaining is not quite the right work.

A Clockwork Orange by Burgess is great man - if you haven't read it and are getting drawn to this type of stuff it is a cracking read. It is written in Nadsat which is like a slang, it takes a couple of chapters to absorb it but once you get it it is brilliant. The era and society it's set in and the themes it explores are powerful, provoking and shocking. One of the best books I've ever read (whatever that's worth) and a proper classic. Do it!

Hope this helps.

 

[WALDENPOND]

I have started getting in to transgressive fiction lately.

So far I have read plenty of Bukowski, just finished American Psycho and I am now halfway in to Fightclub.

I have less than zero on the book shelf...

Was hoping for recommendations?

Can I ask what Bukowski you have read?

 

[LanceRomance]

Can I ask what Bukowski you have read?

Off the top of my head.. Post Office, Factotum, women

 

[WALDENPOND]

Off the top of my head.. Post Office, Factotum, women

Don't know if you have read them but I would recommend Ask The Dust by John Fante and The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. Or anything by Hunter S.Thompson.

 

[LanceRomance]

I have read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas... now that is trippy////

I'll follow up the other two

 

[LanceRomance]

I am reading loaded by Christos Tsiolkas

Very less than zero-ey

 

[La Dispute]

Invisible Monsters by Palahniuk is great, and I hear Choke is really good too.

Most of the other 'classic' transgressive fiction novels have already been mentioned. A Clockwork Orange is essential reading, American Psycho is my all time favourite book and Fight Club is another awesome breezy read.

I find the definition pretty difficult but I find a lot of Russian fiction works along similar lines. Crime & Punishment, The Double etc.

Also just started reading Super-Cannes by JG Ballard and there is definitely TF themes despite being a science fiction book.