Whimsical Novels

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Recommend some novels that are kinda Dawson-ian without the drama, Moomins for grown-ups. Not quite "hello sun, hello birds", stories with an undercurrent of everlasting sadness.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 14:20 (twenty-three years ago)

What does "Dawson-ian" mean?

― thoth (Jake Proudlock), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 14:21 (twenty-three years ago)

the summer book by tove jansson = moomins for grown-ups

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 14:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Dawson-ian, pertaining to Dawson's Creek.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 14:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Stay Here With Me - Robert Olmstead. My fav book.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 14:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Bohumil Hrabal 'I Served the King of England'. Oh alright, it does have Nazis in it, and isn't very Dawsonian, but it's quite appealingly whimsical without being frivolous.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 14:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Jasper FForde - The Eyre Affair

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 14:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, I've never watched Dawson's Creek, but an excellent book of whimsical short stories I read recently was "Dogwalker" by Arthur Bradford.

― thoth (Jake Proudlock), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 15:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I loved Dogwalker. I even sent Bradford a letter to say so after I read it.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 15:36 (twenty-three years ago)

The Little Prince?

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 15:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Is twee a subset of whimsical?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 15:43 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think The Little Prince is twee.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 15:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Bloody right it isn't. It just happens to be the best book about friendship ever written, and if you read it again, you'd realise it's far too bleak and barbed to ever be regarded as twee.

― Jamie Conway (Jamie Conway), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 16:57 (twenty-three years ago)

The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brien

― Prude (Prude), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 17:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Which is more modernist-weird than whimsical, I guess, but the undercurrent of sadness is certainly there.

― Prude (Prude), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh! And When I Was Five I Killed Myself, by Howard Buten. The most convincingly rendered child's voice I've ever seen. Wonderfully melancholy. I just read it about a week ago and loved it.

― Prude (Prude), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 17:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Is it too late to say “Matt to thread!”?

― Rex (Rex), Friday, 25 July 2003 02:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Barbara Pym is the queen of this genre.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 25 July 2003 02:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I haven't read the Buten (great title though) but the bestest child's voice I've read is Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha. Warning: not particularly whimsical.

― Jamie Conway (Jamie Conway), Friday, 25 July 2003 14:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I've read Doyle's A Star Called Henry, and he does a great job of recreating the experience of early childhood there; I'll have to check out Paddy Clarke. The narrator in Buten's novel is eight, and he really nails the patchwork quality of the narrator's mind. There are bits of undigested language taken from his parents and from television floating through like pineapple chunks in jello. (Bad analogy, but you get the idea.) It's funny and sad and probably not very whimsical, either. But if we're counting The Little Prince, then that seems to open a few floodgates, no?

― Prude (Prude), Friday, 25 July 2003 18:16 (twenty-three years ago)

The Prisoner of Zenda!

― fiona (fiona), Friday, 25 July 2003 19:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Star Called Henry was amazing, though I remember it more for the sheer whitehot intensity of the writing than the depiction of early childhood. I doubt I'll find any Buten in Poland, but if I'll try and remember to check it out when I'm UK bound.

― Jamie Conway (Jamie Conway), Saturday, 26 July 2003 04:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Robert Burton - The Anatomy of Melancholy

There. Done.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, 26 July 2003 04:43 (twenty-three years ago)

And Shelley Jackson's The Melancholy of Anatomy, too!

― Prude (Prude), Saturday, 26 July 2003 05:13 (twenty-three years ago)

http://people.bu.edu/jsaikia/shelley.gif http://boston.conman.org/2002/03/05/andrew.jackson.jpg http://www.aje.org.uk/daf/graphics/question-mark.gif

― Dada, Saturday, 26 July 2003 05:16 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1971/gallery/images/340/rod.jpg

― Prude (Prude), Saturday, 26 July 2003 05:36 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.ztribe.com/images/rod.jpg

― Dada, Saturday, 26 July 2003 05:38 (twenty-three years ago)

It's not often that I am really intrigued someone's book recommendation, but I think I'll be getting When I Was Five I Killed Myself. I guess I trust you partly because you aptly recommended The Third Policeman just before.

― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 27 July 2003 11:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Third Policeman is a killer book. i also really like anything by jp donleavy - partic the onion eaters and fairytale of new york - and magnus mills' novels. these all have a kind od dark, twisted whimsy abt them but they are damned funny in parts. these are nothing like the moomins, but if you like any of them, then you'll love confederacy of dunces by john kennedy toole - total classic with a ton of laugh-out-loud moments...

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Sunday, 27 July 2003 15:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Confederacy is indeed wondrous, but I'm not sure I'd describe it as whimsical. It's too brutal for that.

― Jamie Conway (Jamie Conway), Sunday, 27 July 2003 15:19 (twenty-three years ago)

You'll enjoy it, N. It's not quite as strange as 3P, or at least it's differently strange.

― Prude (Prude), Monday, 28 July 2003 02:48 (twenty-three years ago)

It's never too late Rex. If I'm in the mood for whimsy I'll generally dig out some Nigel Williams (the execrable Fortysomething aside he's got an excellent light comic touch). I'd say Saki if he weren't so vicious, ah fuck it, I'll say Saki anyway. Undercurrent of sadness? Um, Perec perhaps.

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 28 July 2003 10:57 (twenty-three years ago)

ten months pass...

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― bosko, Monday, 14 June 2004 07:03 (twenty-two years ago)

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