Title Recommendations based on Gregor Samsa
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."
Heart of Darkness follows Marlow, a riverboat captain, on a voyage into the African Congo at the height of European colonialism. Astounded by the brutal depravity he witnesses, Marlow becomes obsessed with meeting Kurtz, a famously idealistic and able man stationed farther along the river. What he finally discovers, however, is a horror beyond imagining.
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.
Recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock is seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs. Robinson. Benjamin soon finds himself falling in love with her daughter Elaine—as the affair with Mrs. Robinson mother comes back to haunt him.
Chappelle's Show is shocking, smart, and completely fresh. Dave Chappelle's breakthrough project showed him tackling the most serious issues in the most laugh-out-loud funny ways possible. His iconic characters include the lovable crackhead Tyrone Biggums and the blind black white supremacist Clayton Bigsby.
Malcolm Wilkerson lives in a small suburban house in complete disarray with a domineering mother, aloof father, and two brothers. Although some may call the rest of his family "lowbrow", Malcolm has an IQ of 165 and takes gifted classes. Although Malcolm wants more than anything to just be "normal," that's an elusive goal with his outrageous family and genius brain.
Dune tells the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who will become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. Paul's noble family is named stewards of Arrakis, whose sands are the only source of a powerful drug called "the spice." After his family is brought down in a traitorous plot, Paul must go undercover to seek revenge, and to bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.
Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into haves and have-nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman's stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes the very nature of equality and justice in America.
Set in 1982 in the suburb of Blackeberg, Stockholm, twelve-year-old Oskar is a lonely outsider, bullied at school by his classmates. At home, Oskar dreams of revenge against a trio of bullies. He befriends his twelve-year-old, next-door neighbor Eli, who only appears at night in the snow-covered playground outside their building.
Two lost souls are visiting Tokyo: the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial. They find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company away from their lives in America.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can't escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching.
Suffering short-term memory loss after a head injury, Leonard Shelby embarks on a grim quest to find the lowlife who murdered his wife in this gritty, complex thriller that packs more knots than a hangman's noose. To carry out his plan, Shelby snaps Polaroids of people and places, jotting down contextual notes on the backs of photos to aid in his search and jog his memory. He even tattoos his own body in a desperate bid to remember.
Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance.
A fading actor best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected.
The former co-creator of TV's Seinfeld goes into his office every day, but doesn't do much work. Though he does entertain himself with side projects including a lead role in a revival of The Producers, a Seinfeld reunion episode, and a brief stint as a car salesman. He's the go-to person for telling it how it is, and as long as a few off-color remarks don't bother you, he's great company.
