Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: absurd

• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  The Trial

  by Franz Kafka

  Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. The terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism,... (more)
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  A Confederacy of Dunces

  by John Kennedy Toole

  A popular Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy follows the adventures of New Orlean's lower denizens of the French Quarter.
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

  A Modest Bestiary

  by David Sedaris

  Featuring David Sedaris's unique blend of hilarity and heart, this new collection of keen-eyed animal-themed tales is an utter delight. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of everyday life. In "The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck," three strangers commiserate about animal bureaucracy while waiting in a complaint line. In "Hello... (more)
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  The Stranger

  by Albert Camus

  Alternate title: The Outsider.Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  Waiting for Godot

  A Tragicomedy in 2 Acts

  by Samuel Beckett

• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  The Metamorphosis

  by Franz Kafka

  The Metamorphosis is a short story written by author Franz Kafka. Originally published in 1915, The Metamorphosis is considered to be the most famous of Kafka's works. It is the story of a traveling salesman, named Gregor Samsa, who transforms into a monstrous vermin while trying to find himself. The Metamorphosis is highly recommended for those who enjoy the writings of Franz Kafka, and for those who are... (more)
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  Endgame

  by Samuel Beckett

  A one-act play with four characters, written in a style associated with the Theatre of the Absurd, commonly considered to be among Beckett's most important works.
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  The Bald Soprano and The Lesson

  by Eugène Ionesco, Robert A. Jouanny

  Often called the father of the Theater of the Absurd, Eugène Ionesco wrote groundbreaking plays that are simultaneously hilarious, tragic, and profound. Now his classic one acts The Bald Soprano and The Lesson are available in an exciting new translation by Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tina Howe, noted heir of Ionesco’s absurdist vision, acclaimed by Frank Rich as “one of the smartest playwrights we have.” In The... (more)
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  Six Characters in Search of an Author

  by Luigi Pirandello

  This 1921 intellectual comedy contrasts illusion with reality by introducing six individuals to a bare stage occupied by actors in rehearsal. Proclaiming themselves the incomplete creations of an author’s imagination, the six demand dialog for the story of their lives. A classic dramatic exploration of the many faces of reality. Publisher’s Note.
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  Foam of the Daze

  by Boris Vian

  Alternate title: Froth on the DaydreamL'Ecume des jours (Foam of the Daze) is a jazz fueled Science Fiction story that is both romantic and nihilistic! Vian's novel is an assortment of bittersweet romance, absurdity and the frailty of life. Foam of the Daze is a nimble-fingered masterpiece that is both witty and incredibly moving. It is a story of a wealthy young man Colin and the love of his life Chloe,... (more)
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  I Spit on Your Graves

  by Boris Vian

  Published in Paris in 1946 as a hardboiled thriller loaded with sex and blood, allegedly censored in the US and "translated" into French-- I Spit On Your Graves was both a pure mystification and direct home to American literature and movies. More deeply, it was a violent attack on racism by a jazz fan who had already befriended many black musicians and was to become the closest French friend of Ellington, Davis,... (more)
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  The Castle

  by Franz Kafka

  Based on the restored text of Kafka's masterpiece, Mark Harman's acclaimed translation is "the closest to Kafka's original novel and intention that any translation could get . . . eminently readable" (Egon Schwartz, Washington University in St. Louis).
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  The Myth of Sisyphus

  and Other Essays

  by Albert Camus

  Text: English (translation) Original Language: French
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  The Plague

  by Albert Camus

  A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature.
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  Rhinoceros and Other Plays

  by Eugène Ionesco

  In Rhinoceros, as in his earlier plays, Ionesco startles audiences with a world that invariably erupts in explosive laughter and nightmare anxiety. A rhinoceros suddenly appears in a small town, tramping through its peaceful streets. Soon there are two, then three, until the “movement” is universal: a transformation of average citizens into beasts, as they learn to move with the times. Finally, only one man... (more)
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  The American Dream / The Zoo Story

  by Edward Albee

  The American Dream: The story of one of America's most dysfunctional families, it is a ferocious, uproarious attack on the substitution of artifical values for the real values- a startling tale of murder and morality that rocks middle-class ethics to its complacent foundations.The Zoo Story: A harrowing depiction of a young man alienated from the human race- a searing story of loneliness and the desperate... (more)
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka

  by Franz Kafka

  How many writers get their own adjective? The work of this terminally alienated master narrator of the subconscious demanded a new descriptor; I guess they gave up and just settled on "Kafkaesque." But if you ever wonder what the original Kafkaesque work was, take a look here. The book contains all of Kafka's short and longer stories -- everything but his three novels. Most of these stories weren't even published... (more)
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  Caligula

  by Albert Camus

  Text: French
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

  by Samuel Beckett

  Beckett's first stage play portrays two tramps, trapped in an endless waiting for the arrival of a mysterious personage named Godot, while disputing the appointed place and hour of his coming. They amuse themselves with various bouts of repartee and word-play.
• 

  

  • plan to read
  • reading now
  • I’ve read it
  • favorite
  • want to own
  • own it
  • remove book

  Trout Fishing in America

  by Richard Brautigan

  Richard Brautigan was a literary idol of the 1960s and 1970s whose comic genius and iconoclastic vision of American life caught the imagination of young people everywhere. He came of age during the Haight-Ashbury period and has been called “the last of the Beats.” His early books became required reading for the hip generation, and on its publication Trout Fishing in America became an international bestseller. An... (more)