7 Novels Against the Mindless March of Capitalism

In this dark comedy about soldiers appeasing their superiors in a system that has lost the faith of almost everyone involved, no one enjoys more power than Milo, the mess officer, who is excused even for bombing his own comrades, since by bombing them he has managed to bring them revenue.

After surviving a toxic chemical spill, an anxious professor seeks solace in pharmacological mood stabilizers, the spiritual order of the supermarket, and the chemically-enhanced sunsets over the highway.

A disaffected young woman stands up against what she sees as her life’s pointless hustle and grind (or rather, she lies down against it) by attempting to sleep for a year.

Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist working himself sick, plans to finally rest as soon as his “creation” is complete. But of course, his creation – his monster – once animated, won’t let him rest until he can explain what it was that he meant to accomplish with all his technological ambitions. This question Victor Frankenstein is unable to answer.

The great nineteenth-century novels of manners examine how intimate relations are shaped and strained by financial inequality and precarity – by dowries, inheritances, and career prospects. My favorite of these novels traces the many residents of the town of Middlemarch, who varyingly struggle against their circumstances while reinforcing the overall social system.

Here is a history of the 20th century in facts and figures. It is presented to the reader in a surprising jumble and with alarming dispassion, so that it reads almost as if written by an alien, and in that way, it breaks free from familiar logic. Enjoy the perspective from space.

Forgive the inclusion of a short story collection. Few fiction writers present a more compelling view of the dark direction in which our commercial enterprises have headed than Saunders presents in these satires of corporatization and commodification.