Ten Novels That Thwart Traditional Narrative Structure
(alphabetically by author, and inspired by Maria Adelmann’s list)
I, the Divine: A Novel in First Chapters by Rabih Alameddine (novel as chain of beginnings)
A History of the World in 10½ Chapters by Julian Barnes (novel as disparate stories bordering a motif)
If on a winter’s night a traveler * by Italo Calvino (novel as series of interruptions)
West by Carys Davies (novel as POV circumvention device)
Crossings by Alex Landragin (novel as bidirectional soul epic)
Jesus Christs by A. J. Langguth (novel as continually reshuffled myth)
Empty Words by Mario Levrero (novel as handwriting exercises)
The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn (novel as spartan yet poetic staff reports)
Fireflies by Luis Sagasti (novel as luminous pattern array)
Golden Days by Carolyn See (novel as late-page right-angle turn)
* Adelmann selects Invisible Cities instead, which I actually prefer to If on a winter’s night… but don’t consider a novel.
— June 4, 2022