In a matter of seconds, your whole world can be turned upside down for the better or worse. These moments throw us off and can be hard to recover from. However, it’s important to remember to embrace the chaos that fills our lives and embrace the uncertainty of change. Here are 4 books filled with chaos and bedlam to help you find the humor in change!
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
A genius at outlandish plots, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 tops the list of books filled with Crazy! Slaughterhouse 5 is an anti-war story about Billy Pilgrim, who was captured by the Nazis towards the end of WWII. Vonnegut infused this book with science-fiction elements and gave Billy the ability to time-travel. The book goes back and forth with stories of Billy’s life before the war and after being an American prisoner of war.
Now when we think of war, we definitely think of the words crazy and chaotic. But rarely would we think humorous. Kurt Vonnegut’s ability to create a funny yet powerful novel is portrayed throughout this book, and is a must-read for anybody having a bad day!
House Of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Mark Z Danielewski not only uses his words to paint a picture of chaos but literally uses his pages to do so as well. The words on the pages twist and turn, they cross each other out, they’re written upside down, and they make no sense sometimes. The book takes you on a truly chaotic and eerie journey about a family that moves into a house filled with strange and terrifying phenomena. The house is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. With sinister voices, blood-curling creatures, and elements from their worst nightmares, the house threatened to swallow anybody who dared to venture past its limits!
The book, although not funny, has elements of irony and dark humor. But the unsettling feeling it leaves you with will have you grateful for anything that is going on in your life!
Carnivore by Jonathan Lyon
A book of extremes, Carnivore by Jonathan Lyon does not let you stay in any humane human’s comfort zone. This is a book about a young man whose life has been tormented by chronic pain. A queer druggie, all Leander wants is to have control over what he feels. And the way he does this is, ironically, through self-inflicted pain. Physical, emotional, and even sexual.
Gripping from start to finish, you’ll hate the book while you love it. As an added bonus, this book has representations of chronic pain and a life of dealing with it.
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Satirical, although Paul Beatty denies it, The Sellout is a book about racism, slavery, violence, and gangs, and it is insanely funny. The book begins in the city that the main narrator lives in; Dickens — a primarily black town — is wiped off the trace of the Earth. Its presence leaves no marks on any maps. This leads to a mass identity crisis among the people who live there. The narrator sets out on a long and hard journey to get Dickens put back on the map.
The plot is insane and kind of silly, yet, the book manages to convey its point clearly. It effectively puts forth the pervasiveness of racism and how it continues to badly affect so many people, even in the modern times we live in.
Funny, crazy, chaotic. That is basically the theme of our lives, and these books have a funny way of making you feel good about it.
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