"novels" that David Shields would like

[Steev]

So I'm interested in finding relatively recently-penned books that are possibly the kind of thing David Shields talks about in his book Reality Hunger. For those who haven't heard of that book, in it Shields calls for or evangelizes more works that are sort of hybrids of fiction and memoir, that freely appropriate and have a collage sort of aesthetic, that blend genre and don't worry about the borders between fiction and non-fiction, that basically relate "what it's like to be alive today".

In addition I would like to add a few other criteria using the template Karen laid out:
PACING: character-driven and probably slower, though not necessarily slow. The speed of thought and human verbal interaction, rather than the speed of physical action.
STORYLINE: psychological. preferably multiple narrative. possibly unreliable narrator(s). non-linear. character more important than plot(s).
FRAME: it should feel authentic, but that doesn't mean it can't be surreal or whimsical. Think Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story or DFW's Infinite Jest, crossed with Frey's A Million Little Pieces. Intellectual and/or experimental but not impossible. Eco or Bolaño but not Cortazar.
CHARACTERIZATION: the priority is to be inside someone's head and learn something about, as I say above, what it's like to be alive in today's world. Possibly unreliable or unlikable characters, though somehow still able to be identified with, and recognizable as authentic people. moral ambiguity. Real but not necessarily true. True but not necessarily real.

Thanks for any recommendations!

[Christy]

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but the first thing to come to mind is Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. It is a fictionalized memoir sort of thing about O'Brien's experiences in Vietnam told through linked short stories with lots of commentary on the process of storytelling itself and the way that truth is found and created. It's a beautiful book.

[James]

My first thought was WG Sebald. Then there's these lists:

http://www.creativenonfiction.org/the...

http://www.themillions.com/2009/12/a-...

[Meredith]

Some of my favorite authors do what I think you're saying. But, you can let me know if I seem wrong in my interpretation. Tobias Wolff is the first one that comes to mind. This Boy's Life is memoir about his childhood, but then Old School is classified as fiction, even though it picks up where This Boy's Life left off in Wolff's life. Two of my very favorite books. Wolff also has a collection of stories about Vietnam, In Pharoah's Army, and it is really wonderful - alternately hilarious, disturbing, and tragic. Very beautiful. More of a straight memoir again, though there are some ways in which he re-tells his stories that are closer to the cleanness of fiction.

David James Duncan writes like this, too I think, though less memoir. River Teeth is more on the memoir/short story side. He waxes a little more whimsical than I am comfortable with sometimes, but I still love him. Brothers K is his best, I think, but not really memoir at all. God Laughs and Plays is more of the memoir type.

Jeannette Walls, who I'm embarrassed to even mention again because I feel like I bring her up with almost every request on here, writes in this type of style, too, I think. Glass Castle is more of a straight memoir, but Half Broke Horses might be the type of book you're talking about, I think. It is the story of Walls' grandmother, and it is completely spectacular. It is more fictionalized because it is family history, rather than Walls's own story.

That's what I've got for now, but feel free to let me know if I'm on the entirely wrong track.

[Meredith]

Oh, also Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1.

[Meredith]

James wrote: "My first thought was WG Sebald. Then there's these lists:

http://www.creativenonfiction.org/the...

http://www.themillions.com/2009/12/a-......"

Oh, Geoffrey Wolff's book is on here. He's Tobias Wolff's brother, and they both have stories about their biological father. I have his book at home to read. Cool that it's on that list.

[Meredith]

Oh, and Slaughterhouse Five and Fitzgerald's The Crack Up are good calls, too. I don't particularly care for Slaughterhous Five, but I love The Crack Up. So sad. I would suggest that maybe Tender is the Night could fit this category, too, though it is less clearly memoir.

[karen, future RA queen]

this is a very interesting question. i will have to think about it when i am not sluggishly full of food

[MJ]

How about Will Self's Walking to Hollywood? Seems to fit into the category. Geoff Dyer's work also sounds like a match, I loved Out of Sheer Rage.

[karen, future RA queen]

i am bumping this up because i am personally struggling with it, and i would love to have more responses to this one. i really can't think of anything contemporary, but Half Broke Horses horses is an excellent suggestion. all i can think of is like Down and Out in Paris and London, which is not at all recent. does shields give any specific examples in the book?

[Meredith]

Did you see the post with the lists, karen? It looks like both of the lists are from Shields.

[karen, future RA queen]

derrr no, i did not.

[Meredith]

I should have said before, but message 3.

[karen, future RA queen]

wow. that is...extensive.

The Mystery Guest: An Account is a good one.

i will offer up a couple, but i don't know if they will be entirely suitable.

Eva's Threepenny Theatre. 2008, so fairly recent, and definitely a blend of memoir and fiction; it is about the author's great-aunt who was involved in the early days of brecht's theater and her escape from germany during the war, but also interwoven with the author's own life. it is quite beautiful. i didn't look to see if it was on the list.

this one might be more of a stretch, but some of Brian Evenson's stuff might qualify, particularly his later works like Last Days or The Open Curtain, which are not autobiographical, but which are informed by his mormon background and so may work. i have not read those two, but he is a great writer.

[karen, future RA queen]

and obviously, Look at the Harlequins!, although again - old.

[Steev]

thank you, everyone, for all the suggestions. This is great.

[Jasmine]

so I know that you said recent and all but honestly I really think you are shields would be all over B.S. Johnson, who "mention will be made of his bizarre, fundamentalist belief in literal truth as the bedrock of all good writing, his conviction that ‘telling stories is telling lies’.". I would specfically recommend Christie Malry's Own Double-entry. I'd also recommend along this trend Collected Fictions (and possibly even non-fictions) because the fact is they are honestly all blurring the line between truth and reality.

as far as books that are actually contemporary:
Normal People Don't Live Like This It is about teenage girls but it is very clearly about what being alive is like and I thought very true to life.
The Human War is a book about what it is like to grow up in america during the iraq war and is clearly based at least somewhat in the author's real life.
Eat When You Feel Sad and Customer Service are both about what it is like to be alive in the technological era we live in. eat when you feel sad is extremely minimalist though.
How Much of Us There Was is a story about a man's wife dying and I believe the grandson trying to understand what's happening. it blends real and fictional to a point that it made me worry about the author's mental health.
Legend of a Suicide is a book of stories that are a bit postmodern in that they are presented at least like a novel but contradict each other but are clearly at least partially about the author trying to process a suicide in real life(I believe his father's but I'd have to look it up).

sorry that's a long list but hopefully at least some sound right.