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Know of any books which tells a story across distinct snippets of someone's life, rather than a continuity? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/writing@sh.itjust.works
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a work of fiction that i really enjoy/ed is The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante, which is a choose-your-own-adventure story supported with character stats to game-ify it. in it, every chapter is a defining memory randomly from the MC's life, with a choice at the end for the reader

Clearly this is quite particular to the game mechanics they wanted to create; since i haven't read many traditional novels which do that sort of thing, i presume it actually makes it harder to tell a story.

Diaries do this i guess? The Diary of Anne Frank and Jeff Kinney's *Diary of a wimpy kid *(weird to put them together in a sentence) are 2 things i've read which match this style.

But I am quite interested if any traditional-style novel does it. Or would it just de facto become a fictional diary if you told a story in that way, since you'd feel compelled to date each event or provide a chronology?

I'd love examples if anyone has them.

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[–] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Ulysses (James Joyce) does this in a million ways, it is about one day but in that one day the entire lives of the characters burst through as their mundane thoughts reveal what the landscape of their life was shaped by.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    You know what I think I'll read that next then! It's brilliant that such a famous book actually hits my study goals

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    Well, let me introduce you to a world treasure then!

    An Irish radio station did a fully cast radioplay with sound effects and everything and it is available on the internet archive.

    https://archive.org/details/Ulysses-Audiobook-Merged/

    I am biased because I love Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, but outside of that biased lens this production is still undoubtedly a monumental task, just interpreting the shifts in perspective, character, meaning, dream, reality... it is never quite clear in Ulysses and simply arranging the production of the radioplay for Ulysses would have required a huge amount of upfront work to interpet genuinely before recording even began... which is another way of saying it can really help you navigate difficult sections of Ulysses that leave you totally bewildered.

    longer thoughts

    Ulysses is a bewildering book, it can be intimidating as much as I like to counter argue it can be approached from any angle you want, it is one of the most unique novels ever written.

    This radioplay is PERFECT to listen to along with the reading Ulysses, you can switch between the two, relisten to sections in the audiobook... fall asleep listening to sections further on before you get to actually reading them.. whatever it is all a joy.

    in particular I recommend listening to Chapter 3: Proteus to get lost in the hallucinatorily lucid sense of walking on the beach with Stephen Daedalus, inside his mind... listen with headphones while walking down a beach in the winter... that is what eternity feels like lol.

    I also recommend listening to Chapter 7: Aeolus because I think it helps convey the Odyssesy connection of blustery winds blowing about quests into disarray...

    Finally you must listen to Chapter 11: Sirens because of how stunningly the production brought the musicality of that chapter alive, it is like nothing else and is probably my favorite literaly loveletter to the experience of music outside of Proust lol...

    https://ulyssescompanion.com/ulysses-episode-summaries

    The above is a nice little summary of Ulysses chapters, don't worry about spoilers, Ulysses is an entire universe of lives compressed into a day, everything comes all at once and out of order, so reading ahead in the book, looking up summaries or explanations... none of that will impact your enjoyment, Ulysses is not constructed like a mystery novel, it always wears its heart on its sleeve as chaotic and as overwhelming as that heart is!

    A note on structure, Ulysses is structured after the Odyssey, but many people extrapolate that to mean you "have" to read the Odyssey before you read Ulysses to get it. That is nonsense! If you want to read the Odyssey go for it, it will make your reading of Ulysses more fun but so will any number of things, don't sweat that if you bounce off the Odyssey.

    My final piece of advice, ignore most of all of the above and just experience it however makes sense to you!

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    • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Olive Kitteridge by Strout. The Things They Carried by O'Brien.

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    • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Ian M Banks's Use of Weapons kinda does that.

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    [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Spitballing, Faulkner's Sound and Fury is somewhat like that, also As I Lay dying, though more defining events told from different perspectives.

    Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is a lot like that, jumping through a man's life to examine the most defining moments.

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    [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Not quite what your looking for the bobiverse universe kinda does this. Basic idea is guy dies and his mind is put into a satellite which can build more copies of itself. They don't specify time but the story stretches over thousands of years and jumps between the different copies and their adventures.

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    [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    A lot of novels do that, don't they? There are a fair few that do it in non-linear forms as well, like The Time Traveller's Wife for example - still a straightforward story, not a House Of Leaves affair, but the chapters happen out of sequence, making them feel like snippets. I could be misremembering.

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