In a post on Lit Hub, writer Maria Adelmann examines a selection of novels that eschew traditional narrative structure. “A novel is not airline luggage, there are no strict rules, no arbitrary size and weight regulations that you must contemptuously squeeze your story into,” Adelmann says. “You can create your own specifications to your advantage, but the story must still be deliverable—that is, comprehensible to the reader.”
Adelmann examines:
- George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
- Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
- Patricia Lockwood, No One is Talking About This
- Olga Tokarczuk, Flights
- William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
- Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
- Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire
- Rachel Cusk, Outline
- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
