Suggest me a book like 1984 or Grapes of Wrath

Would love me some suggestions of more books to read.

The setting I'm looking for is mostly dark, where some sort of oppression has been imposed on the life of people/narrator, who hopelessly try and fail to defeat it.

The ending would not be a happy one. Perhaps with a conspiracy or some sort of ideology involved. Steinbeck's "The grapes of wrath" is amazing, but I nearly finished reading it. I think that 1984 by George Orwell is also really good. Maksim Gorky is off the list, as I already read all of it.

I don't fancy history books, so I rather not read the like. It doesn't need to be about some major ideology imposed on people, either. It could be about a single individual who imposes a set of twisted rules upon himself, only to suffer from them. "Welcome to NHK" by Tatsuhiko Takimoto is a favourite of mine.

I would be grateful for any suggestions.

... also, please don't give any spoilers about either the 1984 or "The grapes of wrath", as I am still reading these two, but desperately need to fill the hole they would produce once finished!

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World (most often compared to Orwell's 1984)

You might not see it, but I read an interesting article years ago aligning the serfdom of Russia (in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina) to the desperate measures taken by the Joad Family (in The Grapes of Wrath)

A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) sets the precursor for a 1984ish society as does Lois Lowry's "The Giver", which, although a children's book is one of the best feeders into more intricate literature on the dire consequences of a bureaucratic society.

As far as desperate measures go, Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" is unanimously considered the best portrait of an individual's despair.

Tolstoy's "War and Peace" paints a more vivid picture of the emotional and mental debacle of war through the eyes of different Russian families.

All above works would subscribe to the "dark" literature genre.

For books like 1984, you could look up lists of dystopian novels. A few of my favorites include:

Walden Two
Brave New World
The Possibility of an Island
Infinite Jest

As for novels in the vein of The Grapes of Wrath, wherein characters struggle against sociopoliticoeconomic oppression, you could try just about all Southern American literature of the first half of the twentieth century!

The Takeover by G. C. Edmondson & C. M. Kotlan

It depends on which facets of 1984 you find interesting. "To Sail the Century Sea by Edmoondson also has features of 1984.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Akutagawolf

Would love me some suggestions of more books to read.

The setting I'm looking for is mostly dark, where some sort of oppression has been imposed on the life of people/narrator, who hopelessly try and fail to defeat it.

The ending would not be a happy one. Perhaps with a conspiracy or some sort of ideology involved.

---

Sounds like Kafka.

The closest cousin I can think of to 1984 is Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

I love 1984 and Grapes of Wrath, too (they're two of my favorite books), so I will be interested to see what answers this thread gets. Brave New World is definitely a great book for the OP, if you've never read it before.

However, I'm definitely interested in books with that kind of dark tone that these two classics have--I don't necessarily like political or dystopic books any more than any other genre. I just think that book of these books have a very despairing, almost nihilistic tone to them that is what makes them truly unforgettable. At least that's my opinion.

If you want something like 1984, then you need to read We.

Thomas Hardy is very dark, try "Tess" and "Jude" for starters, but there are several others. His characters certainly try, and fail, to defeat their situations! Conrad is also pretty bleak (Heart of Darkness, Victory....)

I'm surprised no one has suggested Fahrenheit 451 yet.

Thank you for so many good suggestions!

Unfortunately, I've already read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Thomas Hardy and a few of South American and South African authors. But the other books will sustain me for another month.

Feel free to add some more suggestions. I get the idea that a lot of the more recent books covering these themes originate from certain geographic locations, such as Russia, South America and South Africa. It would be interesting to read some less known books, perhaps from East Asia, Middle East and India.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun might float your boat. Or perhaps Remainder by Tom McCarthy. Both good, dark reads. Or maybe something by Abe Kobo like The Kangaroo Notebook or The Woman and the Dunes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheFifthElement

Hunger by Knut Hamsun might float your boat. Or perhaps Remainder by Tom McCarthy. Both good, dark reads. Or maybe something by Abe Kobo like The Kangaroo Notebook or The Woman and the Dunes.

---

How could I have overlooked Hunger?! A superb example of the human spirit fighting through external circumstances. And there's a good bit of pride and delusion that smacks of the way many Englishmen died in Virginia so may centuries ago.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JuniperWoolf

I'm surprised no one has suggested Fahrenheit 451 yet.

---

Man, I hated that book with a passion. It failed at everything that Brave New World and 1984 accomplished.

The Green Isle of the Great Deep
The Case of Comrade Tulyev
Hermanos

If you are looking for dystopian novels, then I would suggest:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Anthem by Ayn Rand
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Stand by Stephen King

If you are looking for dark that is not necessarily dystopian:

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Some on the lists are better than others, but I thought all were worth my time.

Good lists coeusus... I really liked:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

But these are mostly like 1984, not Grapes, except for Mice (!)

For Steinbeck, why not try Dickens or Tolstoy or George Eliot... writers of large, realistic, novels set in the "everyday" world, but with great depth, breadth and social conscience. We need more specifics about what you admired about Steinbeck to give tighter recommendations. Was it the social realism in general that you appreciated or the depiction of serious poverty? If both, then maybe Oliver Twist by Dickens comes closest... or Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure...

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Trial by Franz Kafka

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ashulman

The closest cousin I can think of to 1984 is Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

---

That would be my personal choice, too. That and The Trial, by Kafka.

Sounds like you'd love Expressionist Drama. Some expressionist classics would be Woyzeck by George Buchner, The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill, and Machinal by Sophie Treadwell.

I was going to suggest "The Handmaid's Tale."

coeus beat me to it.