Books like A Handbook for Drowning: Stories

So I heard about Shield's Reality Hunger from his interview on Colbert and while waiting around for a copy to fall into my lap, I happened on this little ditty. It is an easy read without much thought, but subtext is subtle so if you pick it up and read in a weekend, you might have missed too much. For instance, at first I didn't even make the connection this was an actual novel; I thought that it was a collection of short stories. And that is the flow of the book, a series of disjointed events in time that comprise the subjects life. It is a non-linear, longitudinal story of a working class liberal family coming of age during the late sixties/early seventies. It is smart and situational and perfectly exemplifies the agony of the American left during the time period. This story has it all: from a story-within-the-story thing, to awkward family dialogue, to abstract fantasy, and even a pretty impressive word porn piece describing a botched sexual encounter. There are some interesting metaphors contained in the situations such as the absurdity of class warfare or the neutered effect of protest as well as the lifelong effect of self-repression. Its close to being amazing but my biggest gripe with it is that its meaningless. The book itself feels unfulfilling by its end which is no doubt the intention in a story whose unifying theme is drowning in the urbanity of practical life when emotive although muted events surround the characters during what was picturesquely tumultuous times. If the goal in writing the book was to make an amazing work feel average, perhaps Shields is more a genius than I realize.