Books like 'The Living End'
Readers who enjoyed The Living End by Stanley Elkin & Curtis White also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century comedy religion literary-fiction humor satire spirituality
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The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsOstap Bender is an unemployed con artist living by his wits in postrevolutionary Soviet Russia. He joins forces with Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman who has returned to his hometown to find a cache of missing jewels which were hidden in some chairs that have been appropriated by the Soviet authorities... -
![The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar]()
The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA literary discovery: an uproarious tragicomedy of modernization, in its first-ever English translation Perhaps the greatest Turkish novel of the twentieth century, being discovered around the world only now, more than fifty years after its first publication, The Time Regulation Institute is an antic, freewheeling send-up of the modern bureaucratic state... -
![On a Turning Tide by Ellie Dean]()
On a Turning Tide by Ellie Dean
Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCliffehaven, October 1944As the Allied troops draw closer to victory, life at Beach View Boarding House is still full of uncertainty.Rosie’s plans for her wedding to Ron Reilly are plagued with misunderstandings. And when Ron takes on a secret assignment just days before they are due to say their vows, it seems their plans for a future together may be doomed... -
![The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov]()
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsMoscow, 1929: a city that has lost its way amid corruption and fear, inhabited by people who have abandoned their morals and forsaken spirituality. But when a mysterious stranger arrives in town with a bizarre entourage that includes a giant talking cat and a fanged assassin, all hell breaks loose...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion satire spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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![The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis]()
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 78 ratingsThe story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior "tempter" named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as "the Patient".Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts as a mentor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter... -
![The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker]()
The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA collection of stories and poems by the noted American... -
![Life With Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Life With Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is old Bertie Wooster's habit to land in the soup from time to time. To get into a spot of bother. Circumstances, aided and abetted by Aunt Agatha, Aunt Dahlia, Bingo Little, Tuppy, Sippy and others, seem to conspire against him, and a frightful muddle ensues.Enter Jeeves, the source of all solace. Jeeves of the infinite sagacity... -
![The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker, Marion Meade]()
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker, Marion Meade
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe second revision in sixty years, this sublime collection ranges over the verse, stories, essays, and journalism of one of the twentieth century's most quotable authors.For this new twenty-first-century edition, devoted admirers can be sure to find their favorite verse and stories. But a variety of fresh material has also been added to create a fuller, more authentic picture of her life's work... -
![The Plays of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde]()
The Plays of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis work consists of the plays "Lady Windermere's Fan" and "A Woman of No Importance". Both the plays deal with the theme of a guilty secret. The wit of the dialogue softens the serious criticism of English manners and morals that lie behind the settings and frivolity of his plays... -
![The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham]()
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsLarry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brillant characters - his fiancee Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion satire spirituality 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
![Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain by Marcel Proust]()
Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain by Marcel Proust
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIncluding THE GUERMANTES WAY and CITIES OF THE PLAIN... -
![The Complete Saki by Saki]()
The Complete Saki by Saki
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHector Hugh Munro is perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England's "golden afternoon''--those slow and peaceful years prior to the outbreak of World War I. The good wit of bad manners, elegantly spiced with irony and deftly controlled malice, has made Saki stories small, perfect gems of the English language... -
![Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings by Daniil Kharms, Matvei Yankelevich]()
Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings by Daniil Kharms, Matvei Yankelevich
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDaniil Kharms has long been heralded as one of the most iconoclastic writers of the Soviet era, but the full breadth of his achievement is only in recent years, following the opening of Kharms' archives, being recognized internationally... -
![Warlock by Oakley Hall]()
Warlock by Oakley Hall
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOakley Hall’s legendary Warlock revisits and reworks the traditional conventions of the Western to present a raw, funny, hypnotic, ultimately devastating picture of American unreality. First published in the 1950s, at the height of the McCarthy era, Warlock is not only one of the most original and entertaining of modern American novels but a lasting contribution to American fiction... -
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![Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser]()
Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis ninth volume of The Flashman Papers, faithfully edited and transcribed by Fraser, finds that Sir Harry Flashman is back in India, where his saga began. This time, our hero is sent by Her Majesty's Secret Service to spy on the corrupt court of Lahore, on India's Northwest Frontier. Flashy's most challenging exploit yet is as politically shrewd and thoroughly lewd as ever... -
![Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser]()
Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Fraser
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHarry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all... -
![Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPongo Twistleton is in a state of financial embarrassment, again. Uncle Fred, meanwhile, has been asked by Lord Emsworth to foil a plot to steal the Empress, his prize pig. Along with Polly Pott (daughter of old Mustard), they form a deputation to Blandings Castle, bent on doing a "bit of good"... -
![The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain by Mark Twain]()
The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain by Mark Twain
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsFor deft plotting, riotous inventiveness, unforgettable characters, and language that brilliantly captures the lively rhythms of American speech, no American writer comes close to Mark Twain. This sparkling anthology covers the entire span of Twain’s inimitable yarn-spinning, from his early broad comedy to the biting satire of his later years...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion satire spirituality 20th-century action-adventure anthologies -
![Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBertie Wooster vows that nothing will induce him to return to Totleigh Towers, lair of former magistrate Sir Watkyn Bassett. Apart from Sir Watkyn himself, the place is infested with his ghastly daughter Madeline and her admirer, would-be dictator Roderick Spode. But when his old friend 'Stinker' Pinker asks for Bertie's help, there is nothing for it but to buckle down and go there... -
![Selected Stories by O. Henry]()
Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"Selected Stories of O. Henry," by O. Henry, is part of the "Barnes & Noble Classics"" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies classics comedy drama -
![Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock]()
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe full text and complete lyrics, as well as photographs from the original production. "One of the great works of the American musical theatre. It is darling, touching, beautiful, warm, funny and inspiring. It is a work of art... -
![The Collected Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker]()
The Collected Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDorothy Parker, more than any of her contemporaries, captured the spirit of the Jazz Age in her poetry and prose, and The Collected Dorothy Parker includes an introduction by Brendan Gill in Penguin Modern Classics.Dorothy Parker was the most talked-about woman of her day, notorious as the hard-drinking bad girl with a talent for stinging repartee and endlessly quotable one-liners... -
![Manalive by G.K. Chesterton]()
Manalive by G.K. Chesterton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPerhaps the most light-hearted of all Chesterton's "serious" works, Manalive pits a group of disillusioned young people against Mr. Innocent Smith, a bubbly, high-spirited gentleman who literally falls into their midst. Later accused of murder and denounced for philandering everywhere he goes, Smith prompts his newfound acquaintances to recognize an important idea in most unexpected ways...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber, Michael J. Rosen]()
The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber, Michael J. Rosen
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"An authentic American genius. . . . Mr. Thurber belongs in the great lines of American humorists that includes Mark Twain and Ring Lardner." --Philadelphia InquirerJames Thurber’s unique ability to convey the vagaries of life in a funny, witty, and often satirical way earned him accolades as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century... -
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![The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi]()
The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis tragicomical stories, often politically or socially charged, mostly situated in a fictional village on the Po called Boscaccio, in the period immediately after World War II, paint a clear picture of the post-war Italy. In this period the Italian Communist Party is very strong, but the Second World War and fascism are still vividly remembered. Boscaccio has a communist mayor named Peppone... -
![Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings by Mark Twain, Henry Nash Smith]()
Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings by Mark Twain, Henry Nash Smith
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLetters from the Earth is one of Mark Twain's posthumously published works. The essays were written during a difficult time in Twain's life; he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters. The book consists of a series of short stories, many of which deal with God and Christianity. Twain penned a series of letters from the point-of-view of a dejected angel on Earth... -
![My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi]()
My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA teenage boy makes the mistake of falling in love with the much-protected daughter of his uncle, mischievously nicknamed after his hero Napoleon Bonaparte, the curmudgeonly self-appointed patriarch of a large and extended Iranian family in 1940s Tehran... -
![The Crime Wave at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse]()
The Crime Wave at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOne of P.G. Wodehouse's most gloriously funny stories, this is the tale of bumbling Lord Emsworth, whose quiet life reading "The Care Of The Pig" and pottering among the flowers at Blandings Castle is shattered by an outbreak of lawlessness involving his niece Jane (the third prettiest girl in Shropshire), an airgun - and the trouser seat of the abominable Baxter... -
![The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by W.S. Gilbert]()
The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by W.S. Gilbert
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom Trial by Jury to The Pirates of Penzance: the complete librettos of all fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Gilbert's verses for Sullivan's music are the most fastidiously turned and inventively rhymed in all lyric comedy. As the Savoy Operas enter their second century on a swell of renewed popularity, Gilbert's reputation as the supreme wordsmith of light opera remains secure... -
![Selected Stories by O. Henry]()
Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsO. Henry originated the humorous, energetic tale that ends with an ironic, even shocking twist. In "After Twenty Years," for example, two boys agree to meet at a particular spot exactly twenty years later. Both are faithful, but in the intervening years one boy has turned into a criminal, the other into a policeman...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies classics comedy drama -
![Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon]()
Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCharles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) were the British surveyors best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that we know today as the Mason-Dixon Line. Here is their story as re-imagined by Thomas Pynchon, featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, major caffeine abuse...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion satire spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Full Moon by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Full Moon by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen the moon is full at Blandings, strange things happen: among them the commissioning of a portrait of The Empress, twice in succession winner in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. What better choice of artist, in Lord Emsworth's opinion, than Landseer... -
![Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker]()
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAs this complete collection of her short stories demonstrates, Dorothy Parker’s talents extended far beyond brash one-liners and clever rhymes. Her stories not only bring to life the urban milieu that was her bailiwick but lay bare the uncertainties and disappointments of ordinary people living ordinary lives... -
![Dumb Luck by Vũ Trọng Phụng, Peter Zinoman]()
Dumb Luck by Vũ Trọng Phụng, Peter Zinoman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBanned in Vietnam until 1986, Dumb Luck--by the controversial and influential Vietnamese writer Vu Trong Phung--is a bitter satire of the rage for modernization in Vietnam during the late colonial era. First published in Hanoi during 1936, it follows the absurd and unexpected rise within colonial society of a street-smart vagabond named Red-haired Xuan... -
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![The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth]()
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsConsidered by critics to be Barth's most distinguished masterpiece, The Sot-Weed Factor has acquired the status of a modern classic. Set in the late 1600s, it recounts the wildly chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father's tobacco business and to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem... -
![Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist by Erich Kästner]()
Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist by Erich Kästner
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGoing to the Dogs is set in Berlin after the crash of 1929 and before the Nazi takeover, years of rising unemployment and financial collapse. The moralist in question is Jakob Fabian, “aged thirty-two, profession variable, at present advertising copywriter . . -
![The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain]()
The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsrelates the adventures of Satan, the sinless nephew of the biblical Satan, in Eseldorf, an Austrian village in the year 1702. Twain wrote this version between November 1897 and September 1900. "Eseldorf" is German for "Assville" or "Donkeytown"...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction religion satire spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott]()
Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad... -
![Amadeus by Peter Shaffer]()
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAmbition and jealousyall set to music. Devout court composer Antonio Salieri plots against his rival, the dissolute but supremely talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. How far will Salieri go to achieve the fame that Mozart disregards? The 1981 Tony Award winner for Best Play. An L.A... -
![Hester on the Run by Linda Byler]()
Hester on the Run by Linda Byler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe setting is the beginning of an Amish settlement in colonial America in the forests of eastern Pennsylvania. There, a young Amish couple, Hans and Kate Zug, are in their ninth year of marriage, still waiting to have a child. Then, one April morning, Kate finds a Native infant, wrapped in deerskin and placed next to the spring where she went to fill her water bucket... -
![Scepticism Inc by Bo Fowler]()
Scepticism Inc by Bo Fowler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEdgar Malroy is the founder of a metaphysical betting shop. A weary atheist, Edgar challenges people to put their money where their mouths are about their faith. If someone really believes that the 16th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama is the one true incarnation, or that God is love, or that his grandfather's spirit lives in a tree, Edgar reasons he should be willing to bet money on it... -
![The Luck of the Bodkins by P.G. Wodehouse]()
The Luck of the Bodkins by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMonty Bodkin's wooing of Gertrude Butterwick on the R.M.S. Atlantic is not progressing as it should. And the cause of all the trouble is Miss Lotus Blossum, the brightest star in Hollywood's firmament. The easy camaraderie of Miss Blossom, coupled with the idea that Monty is the only person who can send the errant Ambrose back to her welcoming arms, is causing Mr Bodkin moments of acute distress... -
![The New Confessions by William Boyd]()
The New Confessions by William Boyd
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this extraordinary novel, William Boyd presents the autobiography of John James Todd, whose uncanny and exhilarating life as one of the most unappreciated geniuses of the twentieth century is equal parts Laurence Stern, Charles Dickens, Robertson Davies, and Saul Bellow, and a hundred percent William Boyd. From his birth in 1899, Todd was doomed... -
![The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll]()
The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Mammy" is what Irish children call their mothers and The Mammy is Agnes Browne--a widow struggling to raise seven children in a North Dublin neighborhood in the 1960s. Popular Irish comedian Brendan O'Carroll chronicles the comic misadventures of this large and lively family with raw humor and great affection... -
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![Piccadilly Jim by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Piccadilly Jim by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe fall brings four more antic novels from comic genius, P. G. Wodehouse. In Picadilly Jim (soon to be a major motion picture), Jimmy Crocker has a scandalous reputation on both sides of the Atlantic and must do an about-face to win back the woman of his dreams... -
![How Right You Are, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse]()
How Right You Are, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA Bertie and Jeeves classic, featuring a cow-creamer, the redheaded Miss Wickham, and the formidable schoolmaster Aubrey Upjohn. Jeeves is infallible. Jeeves is indispensable. Unfortunately, in How Right You Are, Jeeves, he is also in absentia. In this wonderful slice of Woosterian mayhem, Bertie has sent that prince among gentlemen's gentlemen off on his annual vacation... -
![Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse]()
Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOne thing that constantly disrupts the peace of life at Blandings is the constant incursion of impostors. Blandings has impostors like other houses have mice. Now there are two of them – both intent on a dangerous enterprise... -
![The Complete Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge]()
The Complete Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 29 ratings‘O pure of heart! thou need’st not ask of me What this strong music in the soul may be!’ One of the major figures of English Romanticism, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) created works of remarkable diversity and imaginative genius...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction spirituality 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook christian -
![Pygmalion and Three Other Plays by George Bernard Shaw]()
Pygmalion and Three Other Plays by George Bernard Shaw
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPygmalion and Three Other Plays, by George Bernard Shaw, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras... -
![Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan]()
Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsConcerns a writer trying to cope with the break-up of a relationship. Trying to escape his misery, he begins a story about a sombrero that falls out of the sky and lands in a small town. Unable to concentrate he throws the pages in the bin, and that's when it starts to take on a life of its own...
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