The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

This book is about the Fall of the House of Compson, as told through the points of view of its last three sons--Benjy, who is mentally retarded, Quentin, who is suicidally insane, and Jason, who is morally bankrupt--and a third-person, omniscient narrator. Although the majority of the narration technically happens during Easter weekend 1928, the story is continually haunted by its past traumas, which keep slipping in and out, along with Faulkner's cruel golf jokes. This book is a hauntingly beautiful warning about the dangers of getting caught up in the past and about the dangers of settling for a flawed modernity.

Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue

I found this novel to be both horrifying and captivating. Narrated by a five-year-old boy who's known nothing but an 11' x 11' room for his entire life, it tells a little of his life in Room, his daring escape, and his life in the outside world. The set up is frankly horrifying. But the narrator is believable and it's at times quite the challenge to figure out just what's going on. I wouldn't push this book on anyone, but I think it was worth the read.

People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia

This book tells the story of a group of characters, led by Fernando de la Fe whose wife's desertion leads him to decide to go to war against the author, known to the characters as Saturn, who is himself in the throes of grief after being deserted by a woman. The book uses post-modern and post-colonial methods to question everything from religion to immigration to the authority of authors. With all sorts of techniques and innovations that put me in mind of Tristram Shandy (black spaces, words excised from the text, multiple columns), the book tells its story by words and by form. I will certainly return to this playful and beautiful text.

Edgar Huntly; Or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker by Charles Brockden Brown

In this book Edgar Huntly investigates the death of his best friend and stumbles on another character whose experiences begin to eerily mirror his own. I was intrigued by the presence of Native Americans in the text (especially insofar as the circumstances of their attacks are both wildly inflated and downplayed). I was also interested in the theme of sleepwalking and the relationship between the sleeping and waking states and their relationship to motivation as well. Finally, I was intrigued by the presence of a Gothic sublime in the landscape.