Ten Favorite Gimmick Novels
(I’m borrowing my terminology from the Literary Stunt Index by Calvin Kasulke, who organizes the stunts he lists into four quadrants: what he calls Gimmicks, Pranks, Flexes, and Dares. A Gimmick, if I understand him correctly, is a high-concept book that’s designed to engage rather than antagonize the reader. I’ve arranged my ten favorite examples of the category alphabetically by author.)
A Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek: The Next Generation by Joshua Chapman, Age 11 by Zachary Auburn
The Cockroaches of Stay More by Donald Harington
Jesus Christs by A. J. Langguth
The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason
God's Wife by Amanda Michalopoulou
Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
The Character of Rain by Amélie Nothomb
Their Brilliant Careers: The Fantastic Lives of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers by Ryan O’Neill
The Afflictions by Vikram Paralkar
The Inverted World by Christopher Priest
— September 16, 2021