Five lightly surreal novels

Chandler Morrison is the author of eight books, including Dead Inside, #thighgap, and the recently released American Narcissus. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He lives in Los Angeles.

At CrimeReads Morrison tagged five lightly surreal novels.

No matter what forms of surrealism they weave into their narratives, the human element is always at the forefront. Each of them exposes some vital, incontrovertible aspect of existence, and whatever weirdness may be present only serves to accentuate that.

One title on the list:

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Ottessa Moshfegh’s work is her ability to craft weird, neurotic, and largely unlikable protagonists who feel intimately relatable. There’s often a sense when reading her novels that she has somehow manufactured a horrifying reflection of all the aspects of humanity that we thought no one knew about us. It’s the “she is just like me for real” effect. The narrator of Eileen is by and large an absolute freak, but there’s something so universal about the depiction of her consciousness that she could be anyone. This creates a haunting and extremely tense mood of anxiety and restlessness that permeates throughout the entire novel. There’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail toward the end of the book that seemingly calls into question everything before it, or at least it did for me. I asked Ottessa about it the first time I met her, desperate to know I hadn’t imagined it. She stared at me blankly for a few moments and then said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

Eileen is among Lila Savage's top ten caregivers in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue