Books About Being a Loser

[Shotbybothsides]

I need a book to read that focuses on a big loser; I want a classic. Confederacy of Dunces is out of the question because that's already on my backlog. Thanks.

[Ekimhtims]

Knut Hamsun's "Hunger" (1890) might fit the bill.

[Shotbybothsides]

Sounds like it's right up my alley.

[Ekimhtims]

Fantastic...I guess, if losers are your thing eh. Oh well, we all have our reasons. Another really really great read, and certainly a classic, is Ivan Goncharov's "Oblomov." A little more modern title might be Michel Houellebecq's "The Possibility of an Island." As no man is an island, but that the title character is looking for it in a weird futuristic clone filled world, might make him a loser, but no Oblomov that's for sure.

And seriously folks, contribute your titles, there's got to be more.

[Ecurb]

"The Art of the Deal" by Donald Trump.

[ennison]

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

[Ekimhtims]

Do either of those last two titles even qualify as literature? Well, maybe in general. Was expecting more learned reading in response to the original request.

[Der Prozess]

I had to edit my post.

[ennison]

Do they? Well that'd be a matter of my opinion. The word literature did not appear in the question. "Learned" reading indeed! You read yours, I'll read mine; you can be sadly-truly-deeply-
serious (Is that even a word!) I'll just enjoy reading.

[Ecurb]

"Journalism is unreadable; literature is unread." -- Oscar Wilde

[Ekimhtims]

Hey Hey Ennison, shotbybothsides wanted a "classic," which by most definitions is somewhat particular, but sadly you missed out on the humor of my post...about your title and the trump book being literature in "general" in the...."general literature" section. I haven't read "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid," but even so I hadn't suspected that the protagonist was a "big loser," but I stand corrected if that is the case. I have no judgement either of your opinion or reading material, it's all good. Hadn't meant to offend.

[ennison]

Thanks. The Wimpy Kid series is children's "literature". It features an archetypical loser in graphic form and is very funny. Most of the humour will fly over the heads of the readership consuming it but they get great pleasure out of the bits that they do "get". I did reply with my tongue a bit in my cheek. Fact is that apart from "Diary of a Nobody" and "The History of Mr Polly", I can't think of many writers who dealt with this subject. Both Wells and Grossmith found humour in the idea. Is Lucky Jim about a loser? Probably. It too is comic. The novels of Tom Sharpe are full of the unsuccessful as are the novels of J P Donleavy. Again they both both treat being a loser as funny. But as I don't know what age Shotbybothsides is, I wouldn't want to recommend Sharpe and Donleavy. I guess I've just done so though.

[WICKES]

Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels might qualify. The central character is a heroin addict who is cheated out of his inheritance and then wrecks his marriage. Personally, I think they are masterpieces.

[AuntShecky]

Why on God's good earth would I ever want to read anything about a loser? But I sure as hell could write one.

[PeterL]

The Quincunx is about a real loser who even drops the ball when everything should go his way. I was expecting a different ending, but I lost on that.

https://www.amazon.com/Quincunx-Charles-Palliser/dp/0345371135

[PeterL]

dupli

[Irinathedreamer]

"The hunchback of Notre Dame".
I know more, but this is the most classical one.
I love it and highly recommend it!!

[SageOfMainSt.]

Is Lucky Jim about a loser? Probably. It too is comic. In "Lucky Jim," the main character plays what he's been dealt in a way that he comes out ahead. He really hits the jackpot in the end.

A novel about a loser is really depressing. I tried to write one myself, but I also quit reading Roth's "Call It Sleep" because it seemed to be about that. For what it's worth, in "Of Human Bondage," the affair Philip has with some worthless girl makes him a loser for as long as that goes on.

[ennison]

Jude the Obscure I had forgotten about. A barrel of laughs it ain't.

[Red Terror]

Outlaws of the Marsh

Clockwork Orange

[Shotbybothsides]

Because I want to read books with characters that I can relate to

[Shotbybothsides]

No Longer Human is a good one

[Sancho]

How about - Post Office, by Charles Bukowski

[Francis Meadows]

The entire First Law-trilogy by Joe Abecrombie is, in essence, the story of how losers try to survive as best as they can in a cruel and hard world. And it is well written as well.

Marcelo, one of the main characters in Intersection Diaries by Tom Fitch is a loser as sour as they can get. And it is a free book for good measure.

Francis

[Francis Meadows]

The entire First Law-trilogy by Joe Abecrombie is, in essence, the story of how losers try to survive as best as they can in a cruel and hard world. And it is well written as well.

Marcelo, one of the main characters in Intersection Diaries by Tom Fitch is a loser as sour as they can get. And it is a free book for good measure.

Francis

[Gloriya]

um there's this book called "10 things to do before i die"
"it's kind of a funny story" (they just made a movie about this one)
"the brief wondrous life of oscar wao"-junot diaz (this book won a pulitzer)
"Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami my favorite book about american dream like

[Pompey Bum]

The Quincunx is about a real loser who even drops the ball when everything should go his way.

https://www.amazon.com/Quincunx-Charles-Palliser/dp/0345371135

That's an awesome book, Peter. But I think it's more about the failure of human nature at every level--even among the relatively few positive characters--than the boy being a loser. And for all its horrors it is ultimately (or at least often) a black comedy. It's also a pastiche of one Dickens novel after another. And there are things going on thematically (especially with the conservative and progressive duo who run the Punch and Judy booth) that transcend the boy's fate.


I was expecting a different ending, but I lost on that.

I think readers' getting burned on the ending is part of Palliser's metafictional trick. The first half is so horrific that many readers want or expect a Hollywood-ish revenge fantasy in the second (I'm not saying you did--you'll have to tell me). "Oh, the poor boy to have been treated so cruelly," Palliser wants the reader to say, "I hope someone really suffers for this." Which means...

And the several abortive endings Palliser throws at the reader are metafictional jokes, too. Okay, how would Dickens end the story? Nah. How about Collins? How about...? How about...? In the end he gives you something that is just sort of realistic--at least in the cultural context in which it was written (by which I mean the 1980s). Don't like it? Heh heh.

Palliser's last novel, Rustication, is more about a loser per se (the boy in The Quincunx is just too David Copperfield to be a real loser--or maybe that's the point. To my principles anyway, the young man in Rustication is a real screw up. He is an opium addict who has just been suspended ("rusticated") from the university in which his vulnerable family desperately needs him to succeed. It's a good novel, but a pale shadow of The Quincunx--and much shorter, which was a disappointment. Rustication is more of a conventional mystery, but there is a big clue--virtually a spoiler--that would only be apparent to those who have already slogged through The Quincunx. It's Palliser's last little Quincunx joke.

[PeterL]

That's an awesome book, Peter. But I think it's more about the failure of human nature at every level--even among the relatively few positive characters--than the boy being a loser. And for all its horrors it is ultimately (or at least often) a black comedy. (Don't you love the scene where he is trying to escape an asylum by hiding in a coffin?) It's also a pastiche of one Dickens novel after another. And there are things going on thematically (especially with the conservative and progressive duo who run the Punch and Judy booth) that transcend the boy's fate.



I think readers' getting burned on the ending is part of Palliser's metafictional trick. The first half is so horrific that many readers want or expect a Hollywood-ish revenge fantasy in the second (I'm not saying you did--you'll have to tell me). "Oh, the poor boy to have been treated so cruelly," Palliser wants the reader to say, "I hope someone really suffers for this." Which means...

And the several abortive endings Palliser throws at the reader are metafictional jokes, too. Okay, how would Dickens end the story? Nah. How about Collins? How about...? How about...? In the end he gives you something that is just sort of realistic--at least in the cultural context in which it was written (by which I mean the 1980s). Don't like it? Heh heh.

Palliser's last novel, Rustication, is more about a loser per se (the boy in The Quincunx is just too David Copperfield to be a real loser--or maybe that's the point. To my principles anyway, the young man in Rustication better is a real screw up. He is an opium addict who has just been suspended ("rusticated") from the university in which his vulnerable family desperately needs him to succeed. It's a good novel, but a pale shadow of The Quincunx--and much shorter, which was a disappointment. Rustication is more of a conventional mystery, but there is a big clue--virtually a spoiler--that would only be apparent to those who have already slogged through The Quincunx. It's Palliser's last little Quincunx joke.

As a pastiche of Dickens, Quincunx is pretty good, but I'm not a Dickens enthusiast. I understand what you wrote about it, and I realized most of that while I was reading it, but it just wasn't a good novel, and the characters were not types with whom I could either identify or feel pity. I was reading it to provide thoughts about it for a friend; if I hadn't been reading it on request, I would have stopped reading after a few chapters.

[Pompey Bum]

Well, to each his own. The characters are Dickension and certainly subject to Dickens' sometimes cartoonish standards of satire. If you don't know and like Dickens, you probably won't get that much out of The Quincunx. As for the book being badly written because you didn't sympathize with anyone, it's not that kind of a novel--by which I mean it rejects/ignores the all too familiar "how to write popular fiction" orthodoxy. It really wasn't intended for that market. Palliser was an obscure academic when he wrote it and was just playing around with postmodern ideas about pastiche (and some ideas of his own). I don't think anyone expected The Quincunx to become a bestseller--especially Palliser. Maybe ten years after The Quincunx, he wrote a (reasonably good) bestseller called The Unburied, which is probably more what you want (the protagonist is likable in any case). Ten years after that he wrote Rustication, which I don't think made much money. The main character is highly unlikable (intentionally) and the tone is nasty without any of The Quincunx's Dickensian charm. I thought Rustication was a better book than The Unburried, but it doesn't surprise me that it didn't sell. The rest of Palliser's books are postmodern academic la-de-da.

Oh and fun fact, Peter. Palliser has been a resident of the United Kingdom since age three, but he was born in our shared Commonwealth of Taxachusetts. I heard a rumor he was born in Lexington, but I guess it was actually Holyoke. No wonder he's so depressing. :)

[Dark Muse]

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole immediately

I think the Bonfire of Vanities by Tom Wolfe could work as well.

[PeterL]

Well, to each his own. The characters are Dickension and certainly subject to Dickens' sometimes cartoonish standards of satire. If you don't know and like Dickens, you probably won't get that much out of The Quincunx. As for the book being badly written because you didn't sympathize with anyone, it's not that kind of a novel--by which I mean it rejects/ignores the all too familiar "how to write popular fiction" orthodoxy. It really wasn't intended for that market. Palliser was an obscure academic when he wrote it and was just playing around with postmodern ideas about pastiche (and some ideas of his own). I don't think anyone expected The Quincunx to become a bestseller--especially Palliser. Maybe ten years after The Quincunx, he wrote a (reasonably good) bestseller called The Unburied, which is probably more what you want (the protagonist is likable in any case). Ten years after that he wrote Rustication, which I don't think made much money. The main character is highly unlikable (intentionally) and the tone is nasty without any of The Quincunx's Dickensian charm. I thought Rustication was a better book than The Unburried, but it doesn't surprise me that it didn't sell. The rest of Palliser's books are postmodern academic la-de-da.

I am sufficiently familiar with Dickens' works that I understood most of what he put in Qunicunx, but one can understand a work of fiction without liking it, and one thing that I didn't like about Pallisser's characters was that they were like Dickens' characters to a large degree. But different people like different things in literature. There even are people who like Romance novels.


Oh and fun fact, Peter. Palliser has been a resident of the United Kingdom since age three, but he was born in our shared Commonwealth of Taxachusetts. I heard a rumor he was born in Lexington, but I guess it was actually Holyoke. No wonder he's so depressing. :)

That's enough to destroy anyone from the outset. Actually, there are some people who grew up in Holyoke who are reasonably nice people.

[Pompey Bum]

Hey, Dark Muse! Long timely, non? :)


There even are people who like Romance novels.

Now that's just upsetting.

[Dark Muse]

Yes it has been quite a while

[PeterL]

Now that's just upsetting.

The likes and interests of humans are limited in scope.

[Kratz]

Most books out there. Honestly, why would you be interested in a topic like this when it has been done a million times before. Every book is about a loser who rises up to the occasion to them end up becoming a ascetic.

[ennison]

?Eh nooo!

[Zadok]

I suggest "Death on the Installment Plan" written by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. But if you decide to read it, know it beforehand that the atmosphere of this novel is extremely gloomy! Also, if you don't have problem with reading a play, "Uncle Vanya" by chekhov is a better choice regarding the atmosphere of the plot.

[Pompey Bum]

Now that I think of it, Candide is the story of a handful of losers for whom things get worse and worse.

[Shotbybothsides]

Most books out there. Honestly, why would you be interested in a topic like this when it has been done a million times before. Every book is about a loser who rises up to the occasion to them end up becoming a ascetic.

Because I can relate to losers, and that's really all I wanna read about.

[laugher]

I'd suggest Thomas Pynchon's "V." One of its principal characters is one Mr. Benny Profane, who in addition to being a schlemiel (the Jewish equivalent of a loser, and awkward, bumbling being), he is also in Pynchon's words "a human yo-yo." V, however, is a dense work and requires considerable effort on the reader's part.

[kev67]

Burmese Days by George Orwell.

[wordeater]

The tragic hero was invented by the Ancient Greeks: someone who means well, but who messes up. Examples are Oedipus and Medea. Later examples are Hamlet and Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

The antihero is typical of the 19th century, especially in Russia: someone who's lazy, selfish or hedonistic, without being thoroughly evil. Examples are Raskomnikov (Crime and Punishment), Oblomov and Anna Karenina. 20th century examples are Humbert Humbert (Lolita), Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye) and Barmadu (Journey to the End of the Night).

[prendrelemick]

About half of Shakespeare, most of the Greeks, nearly all of the Norse.

Otherwise "Money" by Martin Amis, because you might as well enjoy yourself while losing

[prendrelemick]

About half of Shakespeare, most of the Greeks, nearly all of the Norse.

Otherwise "Money" by Martin Amis, because you might as well enjoy yourself while losing



Edit, for heavens sake why does it keep doing that!

[Danik 2016]

The well meaning hero of Amerika, by Kafka.

Don´t mind the double posts, prendrelemick. They happen all the time.