Ten Favorite Prank 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 Prank, if I understand him correctly, is a book that undermines its own methods of operation with its twist (though I’m describing the type a little more generously than he does). I’ve arranged my ten favorite examples of the category alphabetically by author.)
The Little Buddhist Monk by César Aira
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
S. by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams
I, Libertine by Frederick R. Ewing
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Crossings by Alex Landragin
The Animal Man Omnibus by Grant Morrison
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Meanwhile by Jason Shiga
The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad
— September 16, 2021