Disturbing books.

[Zee.]

Odd request but i'm looking for some "disturbing" novels. Set in a time no earlier than the 20th century.

Throwing a few titles out there to give you an idea of what i'm interested in:
In Cold Blood, A Clockwork Orange, American Psycho etc

[Scheherazade]

This has been discussed here at length - if you would like to have a look:

http://www.online-literature.com/for...highlight=wasp

[Zee.]

Oh, perfect. Thanks.

[The Comedian]

If you're willing to give comics/graphic novels a shot, try Preacher by Ennis/Dillion. It's certainly literary -- compelling characters, plot development, thematic. It's also highly disturbing and visual.

I recommend trying the trade paperbacks vols 1-3 to give the series a fair go. But I'll wager that if you like Clockwork Orange, you'll enjoy this comics masterpiece.

[Jeremiah Jazzz]

I would say the famous As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner or Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

[Phangirl7]

I would say The Giver by Lois Lowry. We had to read it in class when I was in 7th grade and something about it was very disturbing to me, (although I can't remember what it was.) I'll have to read it again and see if my attitude toward it has changed any.
Also the "Child called It" books scared me, too, and I was past 7th grade when I read those.
P.G.7.

[blp]

A Personal Matter and The Silent Cry by Kenzaburo Oe. The latter has a scene in it that literally nearly made me vomit on the train to work one morning. I was standing up at the time; my legs buckled and I broke into a cold sweat. But the former is, by a few whiskers, the better book and also pretty strong medicine.

[stlukesguild]

Gunter Grass- The Tin Drum
Hermann Hesse- Steppenwolf
Mikhail Bulgakov- The Master and Margarita
Franz Kafaka- The Trial, The Castle
Bataille- The Story of the Eye
Andre Breton- Nadja
Georges Perec- A Void
Alain Robbe-Grillet- The Erasers
Julio Cortazar- Hopscotch
Mario Vargas Llosa- In Praise of the Stepmother
Cormac McCarthy- Blood Meridian, Suttree, Child of God
Camus- The Stranger
John Fowles- The Collector
Nabokov- Lolita
Robert Coover- Spanking the Maid
Celine- Death on the Installment Plan

Just a few suggestions.

[blp]

Hmmm... Master and Margarita, stlukesguild? It's unusual, but disturbing? I second Story of the Eye, though. In fact, it should be number one with a bullet in any disturbing books list.

And how could I have missed another chance to plug Blood and Guts in Highschool and Great Expectations by Kathy Acker?

[DisPater]

Under the Skin by Michael Faber
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan
The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

[grapes of wrath]

never read a more disturbing book than Jonathan Littel "Le benevole", "The kindly ones"

[IJustMadeThatUp]

I second The Collector by John Fowles

[My name is red]

Querelle of Brest by Jean Genet
The Anonymous Ogres by Pascal Bruckner

[Zee.]

I googled Story of the Eye ( WOW - sounds so incredibly sick )
and The Collector. The Collector seems to be the kind of book I was hoping to read. As sex, gore etc - i don't find disturbing, just blegh, gross.

[Zee.]

never read a more disturbing book than Jonathan Littel "Le benevole", "The kindly ones"

Is there an english translation?