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Henbane
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24 Aug 2011, 9:59 am

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/au ... s-solitude


This article talks about novels written about people who either spend a lot of time alone, experience solitude or exist largely in their own thoughts.

I wondered if anyone had any favourite books that they liked to read when they felt particularly alone, or that featured characters that existed largely in solitude.

Maybe something that brings you comfort, or solace, or you can particularly identify with.


One book, or series, that particularly resonates with me, is the Duncton Wood series. There is a character in the second book; Mayweed, who has spent most of his life alone, in darkness. He is befriended by other characters, who initially see him as a useful person to know, but slowly come to see his inner turmoil and pain, and one in particular tries to reach him. Over the course of the two books Mayweed is in, he changes, and comes to trust the new beings in his life, and find light and happiness. It's not an easy journey for him, but a fulfilling one.



Moog
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24 Aug 2011, 10:24 am

A book called Flowers for Algernon

It's basically written in a kind of diary or journal format, a fictional documentation of the thoughts of a (*searches for PC phrase*) congenitally mentally deficient man who undergoes experimental treatment and becomes a genius, and experiences two different kinds of loneliness.


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AtticusKane
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24 Aug 2011, 1:15 pm

Flowers for Algernon is great. Brave New World too, a place where everyone is completely shut off from each other's real selves and emotions by conditioning, heavily prescribed happy pills, religion, sex, materialism, and of course most of all, the ever-present need to constantly put forward a certain front lest someone think you're weird and therefore dangerously deranged. HMMM seems familiar, am I right?

Course that's just off the top of my head. Finnegans Wake maybe...?



universeofone
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24 Aug 2011, 1:38 pm

Silas Marner?



blueroses
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24 Aug 2011, 3:55 pm

I can think of a lot of novels I've enjoyed where the narrator or main character didn't literally exist in solitude, but had difficulty interacting or understanding other people, and felt isolated or had a sense of 'inner solitude,' as a result. The Catcher in the Rye, The Bell Jar, and Invisible Man come to mind. Or, one of my personal favorites (see my Carson McCullers avatar at left, lol), The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

Also my username is a reference to Laura in The Glass Menagerie. A play, not a novel, but she definitely knew about solitude.



Stone_Man
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26 Aug 2011, 7:18 pm

Pincher Martin by William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies.

It's the story of a British Navy sailor who is the only survivor after his ship is sunk in the North Atlantic. He washes up on a tiny island, barely larger than a house, and spends several weeks there alone.

There is a fairly mind-blowing psychological twist at the end, which I won't reveal, but even without the ending I think it's the most extreme "solitude" novel I've read.



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26 Aug 2011, 7:29 pm

I love books with some degree of isolation in them


Swiss family robinson
Robinson Crusoe
Mutiny on the bounty
Journey to the centre of the earth


Were all favorites growing up.



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26 Aug 2011, 7:44 pm

Karuna wrote:
I love books with some degree of isolation in them

Swiss family robinson
Robinson Crusoe


They were two of my favourites as well. I think the idea of being alone and having complete freedom and spending all day exploring and innovating and creating was my utopian dream. Still is really.


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heckeler06
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30 Aug 2011, 12:19 pm

Hm, off the top of my head and glancing at my bookshelves:

-Knut Hamsun's "Hunger"
-JK Huysmans "A Rebours"
-I'll throw Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London"--not really isolation or solitude, but really, Orwell is the memorable character, everyone else weaves in and out of the story, but then the focus is on his experience and nothing else. His relationships are pretty meaningless in it.
-Sartre's "Nausea"



anna-banana
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31 Aug 2011, 1:36 pm

heckeler06 wrote:
Hm, off the top of my head and glancing at my bookshelves:

-Knut Hamsun's "Hunger"
-JK Huysmans "A Rebours"

-I'll throw Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London"--not really isolation or solitude, but really, Orwell is the memorable character, everyone else weaves in and out of the story, but then the focus is on his experience and nothing else. His relationships are pretty meaningless in it.
-Sartre's "Nausea"


excellent taste you have! I was going to mention these two as well.

also:
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg


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heckeler06
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31 Aug 2011, 3:05 pm

anna-banana wrote:
heckeler06 wrote:
Hm, off the top of my head and glancing at my bookshelves:

-Knut Hamsun's "Hunger"
-JK Huysmans "A Rebours"

-I'll throw Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London"--not really isolation or solitude, but really, Orwell is the memorable character, everyone else weaves in and out of the story, but then the focus is on his experience and nothing else. His relationships are pretty meaningless in it.
-Sartre's "Nausea"


excellent taste you have! I was going to mention these two as well.

also:
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg


Ah! You have good taste as well [and good taste in booze from what I've gathered from other threads!]

I'm a bit amazed you recognize Huysmans and Hamsun--I don't come across many people who have!

And for a short story of isolation: Gotta throw in Kafka's "Metamorphosis".



anna-banana
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01 Sep 2011, 2:34 pm

heckeler06 wrote:
anna-banana wrote:
heckeler06 wrote:
Hm, off the top of my head and glancing at my bookshelves:

-Knut Hamsun's "Hunger"
-JK Huysmans "A Rebours"

-I'll throw Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London"--not really isolation or solitude, but really, Orwell is the memorable character, everyone else weaves in and out of the story, but then the focus is on his experience and nothing else. His relationships are pretty meaningless in it.
-Sartre's "Nausea"


excellent taste you have! I was going to mention these two as well.

also:
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg


Ah! You have good taste as well [and good taste in booze from what I've gathered from other threads!]

I'm a bit amazed you recognize Huysmans and Hamsun--I don't come across many people who have!

And for a short story of isolation: Gotta throw in Kafka's "Metamorphosis".


yeah was going to mention Kafka but since the thread is called "novels" I decided against it ;)

I actually did Scandinavian studies at uni, hence my knowledge of Hamsun (have to say I kinda hated all his other books though :P) and Huysmans was a gift from a friend who literally demanded that I read it "rite nao!!!1" because it was "so awesome". and it was! I read it 3 more times since then.

good booze & good literature are a nice mix too :D :wink:


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01 Sep 2011, 4:06 pm

Probably one of the best books Bentley Little has done. This story is about Bob Jones, a man who finds he is such a generic human being he is starting fade into the wood work at his job. People increasingly fail to notice he is even in the room. The only exception to this is his Boss who notices Bob all the time and treats him like s**t.

Bob has also suspected someone has been following him. He later meets this person and discovers him to be a part of The Ignored like himself.

I don't want to give away more then this but if you like horror this is an interesting read.

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15 Sep 2011, 1:22 pm

Cleaver by Tim Parks is a rather good novel about solitude.

Its about a man who goes to stay in a mountain cabin by himself, and we gradually learn more about the character from his confused internal monologue