Despite a preference for spare, concise fiction, I do enjoy a good chunkster. Done well, they can be the perfect escape when all you want is lose yourself in a good old-fashioned piece of storytelling. Below are five doorstoppers, each with a link to a review on my blog.
Set in an Irish seaside town, Colin Walsh’s Kala sees three old schoolfriends reunited just before the remains of one of their group are unearthed at a building site fifteen years after her disappearance. Joe’s back in Kinlough having achieved the kind of fame that makes people stop him on the street but not happiness. Helen is home from Canada for her father’s wedding, apparently successful as a crusading freelance journalist. Mush has never left, still working in his mother’s café. Well-practiced at being the new girl, Helen had found herself taken up by Kala and Aoife when she moved to Kinlough. For a year or so, these five were inseparable but when Kala disappeared they drifted apart, each of them damaged in different ways. Walsh elegantly unfolds this story of secrets and lies, leading us to a satisfying denouement after a slow build of suspense. A proper literary page-turner with a bit of The Secret History about it, Kala just hits the chunkster line for me at 400 pages.
Set in early twentieth-century New York, Hernan Diaz’s Trust is a clever exploration of truth, perception and morality told 
through the story of Andrew and Mildred Bevel: one apparently the most successful financier Wall Street has seen; the other a much-lauded philanthropist. Presented as a ‘literary puzzle’, Diaz’s novel has four discrete sections, each with a clear and distinct voice, beginning with the novel that seizes public attention in 1938, purportedly based on the Bevels, offering a view of a loveless marriage of convenience. It’s followed by fragments of Bevel’s self-serving autobiography for which he employs Ida, a ghostwriter. Several decades later, Mildred’s almost indecipherable, fragmented journal offers Ida the solution to the puzzle of his wife’s importance to Bevel. Easy for such a structure to be too tricksy but it works well. The denouement wasn’t entirely successful for me – I’m not sure I wanted a solution to the Mildred puzzle – but the journey to it had me gripped.
Beginning in the early 1970s, Mona Simpson’s Commitment spans three decades telling the story of the Aziz family who live 
in the shadow of their mother’s illness when she slips into a profound depression, saved by her friend, Julie, who steps in recognising Diane’s condition. When his mother is admitted to a mental institution, Walter continues at Berkely, aware of his siblings’ difficulties but apart from them. Lina eventually wins a college place far from home leaving Donnie, adrift and ripe for falling into trouble. As the years roll on, Diane’s hoped for recovery never materialises. Throughout it all, Julie remains stalwart, the friend who is finally recognised as family. This richly detailed and immersive novel explores a multitude of themes through the lives of three young people all deeply affected by their mother’s illness and absence. It’s one which repays attention handsomely, leaving the reader with a good deal to think about.
Lightening the tone, John Boyne’s The Echo Chamber takes a hefty swipe at social media following the Cleverley family, made famous by self-proclaimed national treasure George Cleverley, over the course of five days in which they find themselves caught up in a Twitter maelstrom after George gets his pronouns in a twist. Boyne uses humour very effectively in a satire which pokes fun at the sanctimonious outrage so often spouted on social media while conveying a serious message about the damage it inflicts. There have been a multitude of novels dealing with this theme in recent years, but Boyne’s remains one of my favourites. It may be a doorstopper but you’ll fly through it.
The same could be said of Sarah May’s Becky, a clever, entertaining twenty-first century take on William Thackeray’s Vanity 
Fair, which tells the story of a young woman who works her way up the tabloid ladder, determined to get to the top whatever the cost to herself and others. Aged eighteen, Becky Sharp reinvents herself, leaving the small Kent town where she was raised by a mother given to drink and ill-advised relationships, landing a job as a nanny with the Crawleys. Within a few years, she’s inveigled herself into the family’s mega media corporation, cultivating contacts wherever she can which will see her privy to all sorts of secrets, including Royal ones, until the story of a missing girl lands her in court. Clearly a huge fan of Thackeray’s classic but not of the tabloid press, May has her Becky follow a similar trajectory as his, drip feeding us details from her backstory explaining her ruthless ambition. Such is her skill, that despite Becky’s appalling behaviour, I still felt some sympathy for her.
Any doorstoppers you’d like to share?
If you’d like to explore more posts like this, you can find them here. My first five doortstopping novels are here.
I loved Echo Chamber – laughed and laughed. Becky didn’t do it for me. Commitment looks like my kind of thing – will hunt it down.
Wasn’t it brilliant! Pleased to hear you like the sound of Commitment.
Oh, I love a good doorstopper. It’s funny, though, perhaps because I read both Kala and Trust on Kindle, they didn’t *feel* like doorstoppers to me, or maybe I think of a doorstopper as closer to the 500-page mark. My most recent doorstopper read was Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Long Island Compromise (464pp), which I’d describe as popcorn litfic – enough substance to keep me interested but destined to be forgotten.
I can see that Kala’s pace doesn’t give it a doorstopper feel unless you’re holding it in your hands. Great description! I’d apply it to Fleishman is in Trouble, too.
I thought Fleishman had a bit more to it, but yes!
John Boyne sometimes gets a bad rap, unfairly I think. I got him to sign my copy of The Echo Chamber. A friend who interviewed him at a festival hadn’t loved it, but I think my taste is closer to yours than it is to hers! Thank you for effectively rescuing this one from the bottom of my TBR!
Delighted to hear that! I think he wrote this one as a response to a social media pile on a few years back. Hope you enjoy it, Jennifer.
Read Kala & The Echo Chamber, so I have 3 more new recommendations to add! Thanks Susan.
You’re welcome! I hope you enjoy them if you get to them.
I recently read A Robert Galbraith book that was 1200 pages long.
Blimey! I hope you enjoyed it.
I had Trust and Becky already on my radar, the latter from your review, and now Echo Chamber is jumping out at me too.
Doorstoppers? I think the most recent I read (a couple of years ago) was Wuhan set in that Wuhan but during WWII, covering a set of parallel storylines with historical and fictional characters. A tad too graphic at the start but once I got into it and things settled down I did end up enjoying it as a picture of China at the time.
That does sound good although I’ll have to get over my antipathy to that title!
Sometimes I enjoy a doorstopper too, it can be just the thing to sink into the same book for a good while. I tend to look to the classics when I’m in this mood, so it’s good to have a reminder of these more recent temptations!
There certainty are some very chunky classics to lose yourself in. Something to remember for winter.
I generally keep doorstoppers or tomes for holiday times when I can delve down into them. Have read Trust and enjoyed it, the twists and turns were good, but like you I thought the ending was a damp squib. It shared the Pulitzer with Demon Copperhead, and I think Demon was the superior book. Still to read Kala and Echo Chamber. Boyne is quite prolific.
I still have several of Boyne’s novels on my list to read. I’ve not got around to reading the Kingsolver, a little put off by the David Copperfield reimagining.
It’s more subtle when it’s transferred to the Appalachian region but a lot more bleaker too. But I could not put it down, flew through it, and that’s a measure of how good a story is for me.
That’s a strong recommendation. Adding it to my list.
I just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell this morning. 1006 pages. It took me about 400 pages to really get into it! And I am pleased I kept going. But my next read will be short.
I’m impressed by your patience, Rachel. Glad it paid off! I tend to give up after fifty pages if it’s not working for me these days.
I’m not really a chunkster fan, but my most recent foray – Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting – was definitely worth all 600+pages. And please don’t be put off by the Kingsolver-rewrites-Dickens. It’s VERY different from the orignal source, and a good read.
Delighted to hear as I’ve just bought a copy of the Murray, and the Kingsolver’s now on my list. Can’t resist such a heartfelt plea!
Well, you ‘force’ a lot of books on me. I’m glad to say 😉
Sometimes it’s lovely to really sink into a longer novel and get thoroughly immersed in the characters etc. It does always feel like a big commitment, how big depends on how big the book is. I suppose for me big is 500 pages and over. I am definitely considering Demon copperfield though it’s years since I read anything by Kingsolver.
It’s an indication of how much I prefer shorter fiction that my measure is 100 pages fewer than yours! I do know what you mean about sinking into a long novel, though.
The only one of these I’ve read is Trust which I didn’t enjoy as much as you did. The John Boyne sounds promising
I remember that, Karen. The Boyne is a quick read, despite it’s size, and very funny, too. He was clearly getting a few things off his chest!
The Echo Chamber sounds like fun, and I love the cover! I feel like I haven’t heard as much buzz about this Boyne compared to some of his others.
It’s hugely entertaining! It had quite a bit of coverage here when it was published but perhaps not so much elsewhere.
LIke you, I enjoyed the process more in Trust than the outcome, but I haven’t held that against it: I simply remember it as a good read. The others, I’ve not read, but they sound very good, each in its own way. I’m still reading Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (and have been for months) but I have a few others in mind when that’s finished.
I’ve just checked Praiseworthy’s page extent. I’m not surprised it’s taking you a long time! Lots to digest, too.