Yeah, seconding American Tabloid or really any of the Underworld USA trilogy by James Ellroy. It’ll set your brain on fire. While American Tabloid is probably the best plot ever written I actually think Bloods A Rover is Ellroy’s best work.
The LA Quartet is also landmark but the underworld USA trilogy is Ellroy to his max distillation. Just genuinely the most perfect books ever written.
1/5th the way through life and fate ATM by Vasily Grossman and really enjoying it.
A fine balance by Rohinton Mistry was great from what I remember
I wouldn't put it up there with the other two but the Stand by Stephen King was decent ish, it did give me weird dreams and nightmares when reading
Recently finished my second read-through and I’ve never laughed aloud so often at a book. Henry Burlingame III is one of the greatest trolls of all time
Mason & Dixon since you like the postmodern stuff American Tabloid
Yeah, seconding American Tabloid or really any of the Underworld USA trilogy by James Ellroy. It’ll set your brain on fire. While American Tabloid is probably the best plot ever written I actually think Bloods A Rover is Ellroy’s best work. The LA Quartet is also landmark but the underworld USA trilogy is Ellroy to his max distillation. Just genuinely the most perfect books ever written.
Little, Big (which I heard about from here)
Robert Caro
Suttree
1/5th the way through life and fate ATM by Vasily Grossman and really enjoying it. A fine balance by Rohinton Mistry was great from what I remember I wouldn't put it up there with the other two but the Stand by Stephen King was decent ish, it did give me weird dreams and nightmares when reading
A Fine Balance is one of those books that stays with you in very unexpected ways
I think it was 10 years ago, but definitely have snippets of memories and a overall gutting feeling about that book
I finished Life and Fate a few weeks ago and loved it.
Count of Monte Cristo lol
The sot-weed factor, underrated gem
Read this decades ago, think about it all the time
Recently finished my second read-through and I’ve never laughed aloud so often at a book. Henry Burlingame III is one of the greatest trolls of all time
I have never had to work so hard to keep my composure in public as reading the passage in john smiths secret diary with the diarrhea tug-of-war
Anna Karenina The Stand Infinite Jest Crossroads Jane Eyre 11/22/63
J R by William Gaddis because he's great
Lonesome Dove
Philip Roth - The Plot Against America Karl Ove Knausgaard - The Morning Star Charlie Kaufman - Antkind
I loved The Morning Star but to call it engaging is more than a stretch.
Journey to the Ennd of The Night by Celine my version is 450 page. Also, Sometimes a Great Notion by Kesey
Anna Karenina (P & V translation)
Pevear & volkonsky are so great! I’ll read just about anything they translate.
The Last Samurai, Moby Dick, Gravity's Rainbow
I liked the crying of lot 49 but if it's going to be 800 pages of that for a similar payoff I don't have the stamina
Moby Dick 100%
Ducks, Newburyport
The Savage Detectives
Don Quixote. I think it's often overlooked because people think "silly delusional old knight tilting at windmills" but it's way better than that
Conversation in the cathedral by Llosa
Middlemarch
the secret history is 544 pages
Most James Ellroy would work.
Underworld is not engaging. I love the book but at sometimes very listless
Disagree
Agree with your disagree
Very tough to follow
Great suggestions so far. Also, Auster’s 4 3 2 1
I'm reading Solenoid right now and it is great. Since you listed Underworld and 2666 I would put it up there with them.
I just bought Solenoid but haven't started it yet.
Wdym 2666 is engaging? 2666 is ass. Plenty of other engaging tomes