METAFICTION
Metafiction is literally fiction about fiction! These self-reflective, multi-layered stories can be about a writer trying to write a book, a reader trying to read a book, or even a character recognizing that they are a character within a book. Metafiction often blurs the lines between fiction and reality and ultimately poses questions about writing, reading, and books in general. Another similar format is metafilm, which self-consciously comments on films and the making and watching of them.
“Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books. Books make sense of life. The only problem is that the lives they make sense of are other people’s lives, never your own.”
~ Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes
Locos: A Comedy of Gestures
Felipe Alfau, 1988
First published in 1938, this Spanish collection of interconnected stories has hints of magic realism and literary self-awareness that foretells the metafictional writing that would later emerge. This book features surrealist environments and eccentric characters that the author notes he himself can not control.
F / ALFAU
The Information
Martin Amis, 1995
In this black comedy, an unsuccessful British novelist jealously attempts to destroy his friend, a dim-witted, yet inexplicably successful novelist himself. Amis is said to have modeled both of these characters on himself, resulting in a tale of literary envy and subtle self-reflection.
F / AMIS
London Fields
Martin Amis, 1989
The first chapter of this book opens with a declaration that seems to come straight from the author, claiming that he knows what will happen on the pages to follow and is on deadline to finish writing them. The actual narrator is just one of the wildly colorful characters of Amis’ book—a writer watching a psychic femme fatale as she tries to undermine two men whom she believes will be responsible for her impending murder.
F / AMIS
The Mezzanine: A Novel
Nicholson Baker, 1988
This novel follows the meandering thoughts of an ordinary office worker during his lunch hour, with frequent footnotes that further dissect his observations. But then the footnotes become increasingly lengthy, humorously blurring the lines between what readers believe is the main story and what are the digressive side notes.
F / BAKER
Flaubert’s Parrot
Julian Barnes, 1985
Equal parts detective novel, biographical discourse, and obsessive fascination, Barnes creates a story about an English doctor in search of information about French writer Gustave Flaubert. While doing so, several chapters focus more on the doctors’ and arguably Barnes’ own observations, discussing how novelists and literary critics think and opining on how stories should end.
F / BARNES
PB / BARNES
Lost in the Funhouse
John Barth, 1968
Composed of related short stories, this collection can be read as a story about a teenage boy’s family vacation during World War II (including a disorienting visit to a funhouse). At the same time, it also offers plenty of self-referential tangents that discuss the writing process and even attempts to reach out and converse with the readers themselves.
F / BARTH
PB / BARTH
Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 1605
This classic novel recounts the playful (mis)adventures of Spanish gentleman Don Quixote and his peasant sidekick Sancho Panza. Don Quixote mistakenly believes the tales he has read in his chivalry books are true stories, eventually going mad from not being able to distinguish between what is fact and what is fiction.
F / CERVANTES SAAVEDRA
808.8 / GRE
Spanish / 863.32 / CER
Wonder Boys
Michael Chabon, 2008
Grady Tripp is a professor and highly acclaimed author struggling to finish his next book. A series of hilariously inconvenient events, from the pregnancy of his mistress to the shooting of the chancellor’s dog by one of Grady’s own writing students, quickly throws him into a wild adventure that could either threaten or possibly inspire the completion of his novel.
F / CHABON
DVD / WON
J. M. Coetzee, 2005
After losing part of his right leg in a bicycle accident, photographer Paul Rayment falls into deep despair, isolating himself from everyone. He begins to find hope in the hands of two women—the Croatian nurse he grows to love, and the famous author who seems to be turning him into the subject of her latest novel.
F / COETZEE House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000
This book is essentially made up of two main stories—one about a man pouring over the horrifying manuscript left behind by a deceased blind man, and one about the family and their haunted house depicted in this manuscript. As the man maddeningly tries to piece together the manuscript’s mysteries, footnotes and fictional interview transcripts appear from the man’s future editors, shown in different fonts to help distinguish between them.
F / DANIELEWSKI
Democracy
Joan Didion, 1984
Following the tragic love triangle between a reluctant wife, her ambitious senatorial husband, and a freelance CIA operative, this arresting novel is set against the backdrop of Hawaii and Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Interspersed within their story are the insightful journalistic observations by Didion herself, seamlessly conversing with her readers and questioning her own literary choices.
F / DIDION
The Island of the Day Before
Umberto Eco, 1995
Told from the eyes of an editor of today, this book follows the tale of an abandoned 17th-century Italian castaway as he eventually veers towards insanity. On one hand, the editor is attempting to create the story by deciphering the notes and letters the castaway left behind; on the other, the castaway himself has concocted a false history about an evil twin brother that has caused all of his troubles.
F / ECO
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco, 1983
On the surface, this book works as a murder mystery involving the death of seven monks and the Franciscan friars aiming to solve it. Underneath this, however, is a complex commentary that challenges readers to identify if the past is known and real, or if history itself is subject to our changing interpretations.
F / ECO
PB / F / ECO
DVD / NAM
The Neverending Story
Michael Ende, 1983
This beloved story focuses on young Bastian, a curious boy who absorbs himself in a fantasy book he obtains from an old bookstore. Little does he know, the further he reads it, the more involved he himself will become in influencing its characters and its eventual outcome.
F / END
LP / ENDE
DVD / NEV
Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy
Jostein Gaarder, 1994
As its title suggests, this tale centers on young teen Sophie and the mysterious letters and postcards she receives while under the tutelage of a philosopher. When the correspondence becomes more and more peculiar, Sophie and the philosopher begin wondering if they are actually characters of a novel, and strive to determine if they can escape their situation before they possibly cease to exist.
F / GAARDER
The Princess Bride
William Goldman, 1973
This classic fantasy chronicles the adventures of farm boy Westley and the beautiful Buttercup as they battle fiery swamps, giant rats, and the jealous prince who wishes to take Buttercup as his wife. A story within a story, Goldman presents this tale within the made-up backdrop of his fictional childhood.
F / GOLDMAN
PB / Y / GOLDMAN
CCSP / F / GOLDMAN
DVD / PRI
The World According to Garp
John Irving, 1978
Irving has embedded a number of stories within stories in this complex classic. It chronicles the lives of both aspiring writer T.S. Garp and his feminist mother as they navigate their own feelings of mortality, gender and sexuality, and the “lunacy and sorrow” of life.
F / IRVING
PB / F / IRVING
CSSP / F / IRVING
DVD / WOR
Atonement: A Novel
Ian McEwan, 2002
Young Briony is an aspiring writer who will one day pen the titular novel. When as a child she claims to witness a terrible domestic crime, she sets into motion a series of events during what will become World War II, demonstrating the power and danger of the written word.
F / MCEWAN
PB / F / MCEWAN
BOD / F / MCEWAN
DVD / ATO
Pale Fire
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, 1962
At a first glance, this book appears to contain a 999-line poem in four parts, describing the events and thoughts of the poet’s life. Yet intermixed are later comments and even additional storylines introduced by the poem’s fictional editor, creating a multi-layered reading experience.
F / NABOKOV
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O’Brien, 1966
The broader story of this book concerns a literature student writing a constantly changing novel, with characters that themselves are writers also penning their own stories. Thus begins a riotous intermingling of plots, particularly when the imagined characters decide to rebel against their creators.
F / O’BRIEN
Diary: A Novel
Chuck Palahniuk, 2003
This novel is written as a “coma diary,” narrating the frightening incidents following the failed suicide of a former artist’s now comatose husband. It also unnervingly uses a second-person voice, as if trying to directly pull readers into the eerie events of the book.
F / PALAHNIUK
The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon, 1966
In many ways a novel about conspiracy and paranoia, Pynchon’s book also functions as a mystery about a woman striving to decipher a play that seems to echo the events around her. Along the way she encounters rival mail corporations, oddball characters, and cryptic symbols, each with their own roles to play.
F / PYNCHON
Jealousy: A Novel
Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1959
This novel is unique in that it is told from the perspective of a silent, unnamed first-person narrator. Suspecting that his wife is having an affair, he makes both minute observations and imagined speculations that soon prove to be, perhaps intentionally, harder and harder to separate from each other.
F / ROBBE-GRILLET
Midnight’s Children
Salman Rushdie, 1981
Telepathic Saleem was born when India gained its independence and soon discovers that all Indians born within that same hour also possess their own special powers. While attempting to assemble these Midnight’s Children, he constructs a story to describe his own history and that of his newborn nation.
F / RUSHDIE
The Comforters
Muriel Spark, 1957
Protagonist Caroline is in the middle of composing a book when she starts hearing typewriter sounds and a mysterious voice narrating her life. In doing so, this self-referential work allows readers to question who the real narrator is and what the role of readers is in this and any other book.
Danny Ocean and ten friends get together to pull a big casino heist in Las Vegas.
F / SPARK
The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Laurence Sterne, 1963
Digressions, unconventional punctuation, and statements directly addressing readers fill the pages of this meandering tale. Though Tristram manages to eventually recount the strange events leading up to his birth and the equally bizarre life of his uncle, his erratic stream of consciousness drives most of the storytelling.
F / STERNE
DVD / TRI
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut, 1988
Right from its opening pages, Vonnegut’s narrator explains why he is writing the titular novel and that it is hardly linear in nature. It goes on to detail the anti-war Billy Pilgrim as he travels in time and relives his experience during the firebombing of Dresden.
F / VONNEGUT
PB / F / VONNEGUT
Breakfast of Champions
Kurt Vonnegut, 2006
Complete with hilarious illustrations, this book revolves around sci-fi writer Kilgore Trout, businessman Dwayne Hoover, and their strange encounter. Hoover grows progressively insane when he accepts Trout’s latest book as truth, thus starting a humorous exploration of destiny versus free will and fact versus fiction.
F / VONNEGUT
BOD / F / VONNEGUT
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace, 1996
Wallace dissects the overwhelming effect of entertainment and addiction via the crazy characters and the potentially destructive film they watch in this parody of North American culture. Perhaps the most ironic aspect of this massive novel—a complex and lengthy work of entertainment in its own right—is that it suggests how such diversions can overwhelm our lives.
F / WALLACE
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
David Foster Wallace, 1999
True to its name, this is a collection of fictional interview transcripts with men of less-than-admirable qualities. It examines themes ranging from sexuality to isolation to self-obsession, eventually asking both readers and fiction writers for their input and even questioning if the book itself does what it sets out to do.
F / WALLACE
Mister B. Gone
Clive Barker, 2007
This horror story opens with a chilling plea for readers to burn what they are reading in order to set free the demon living within its pages. The demon then proceeds to tell the story of his sinister, murderous life, while at the same time continuing to threaten and persuade readers to release him from the confines
of the book.
H / BARKER
Misery
Stephen King, 1987
AIn one of King’s most gripping novels, romance writer Paul Sheldon finds himself held hostage by monstrous nurse Annie Wilkes, brutally forced by her to rewrite one of his popular books according to her psychotic desires. King’s novel works on multiple levels, both as a horrifying tale and as the author’s own musings on the challenges and dangers facing popular novelists.
H / KING
CSSP / H / KING
DVD / MIS
Haunted
Chuck Palahniuk, 2005
A group of writers attend a three-month retreat at an abandoned theatre, penning the twenty-three poems and short stories that make up this disturbing book. The longer they stay there, the more desperate they become to establish their literary credibility ... and the more gruesome their stories become.
H / PALAHNIUK
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
Italo Calvino, 1981
“You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel...” reads the first line of this unique metafictional novel. In addition to utilizing this second-person narrative and what appear to be repetitions of the opening chapter, it ultimately reflects on and challenges readers to consider the topic of reading and why they read.
SF / CALVINO
The Eyre Affair
Jasper Forde, 2002
In this first book of the Thursday Next series, Thursday is a literary detective living in an alternate Great Britain in which time travel and fictional masterpieces can be explored and altered. Thursday is tasked to find the criminal responsible for snatching Jane Eyre straight from her book before the novel and its ending are changed forever.
SF / FFORDE
BOD / SF / FFORDE
03/05/11
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