An A-Z of novel cures for ailing book lovers

Exhausted? Lovesick? Addicted to the internet? Here are the perfect books to set you on the road to recovery

theguardian.com, Thursday 3 October 2013 08.39 EDT

 

The Road will cure you of fatherhood guilt; Crusoe's island will brighten any pessimist; and be jolted out of apathy in The Postman Always Rings Twice. Photographs: Allstar, Getty Images, Alamy

From treating urban fatigue (with help from China Miéville) to tempering road rage (thanks to the right audiobooks), Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin have compiled an alphabet of literary remedies, taken from their new book, The Novel Cure: An A-Z of Literary Remedies. Let us know what yours would be.

A is for Apathy

Cure: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
From the very first line, when itinerant jailbreaker Frank Chambers is thrown off the hay truck at noon, this story is up and running. The combination of story and style will hit you like a triple espresso and, instead of apathy, there'll be opportunism.

B is for Boredom

Cure: Room by Emma Donoghue
Kicking the walls from boredom? Be chastened by the number of things Ma finds to occupy her son in the garden shed where they've been held captive for five years – with little more than a table, a wardrobe, a pile of eggshells and some cereal boxes.

C is for City fatigue

Cure: The City and the City by China Miéville
If you think you've had enough of the metropolis, think again. This unsettling yet familiar tale takes to task the city-dweller's tendency to "unsee" – to see what you find acceptable, and ignore all the rest. There are two cities here, occupying the same geographical space: the one you see and the one you don't. And once you've got used to hovering between them, you'll find yourself interacting with your urban surroundings in a whole new way.

D is for Dissatisfaction

Cure: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
"What can it profit a man to gain the whole world and to come to his property with a gastric ulcer, a blown prostate, and bifocals?" Steinbeck asks in this ode to the ambition-free life of the bum. If what you've got never seems enough, learn the art of being contented with almost nothing by hanging out in a vacant lot with Mack, Doc and the boys.

E is for Exhaustion

Cure: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Don't crawl into bed when you're knackered; become a student of Zorba and dance yourself back to life – spontaneously, defiantly, ecstatically.

F is for Fatherhood

Cure: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Stop guilt-tripping yourself about not doing enough for your kids. It doesn't take much to be a great dad. Even in an America shorn of trees and basic necessities – not to mention football and birthday cake – this father manages to do a fine job, through honesty, selflessness and an absolute determination to keep his son alive.

G is for Goody-goody, being a

Cure: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
When the devil appears in a Moscow park one spring evening, he runs rings round all the other characters. Debonair and charismatic, and faintly European, the devil here has wit, edge and all the good lines (and throws the best parties). Admit it: life is more fun for – and with – those with a glint of mischief in their eye.

Hiccup cure? The Hunger Games

H is for Hiccups

Cure: A literary shock
Some stories accumulate shock as they go; some deliver an ice cube down your back on a particular page. See our list of The Ten Best Shocking Novels, including Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernières, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński and Legend of a Suicide by David Vann.

I is for Internet Addiction

Cure: Wolf Solent by John Cowper Powys
The hero of this heady, quasi-mystical tome, set in Dorset, experiences an "intoxicating enlargement of personality" when he allows himself to fully engage with the natural world – or indeed the "maddeningly desirable", blackbird-imitating Gerda. Chuck your devices in the bin and rediscover your sensual self among the birds and bees.

J is for Jam, being in a

Cure: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The way in which Pi gets himself out of his jam – and they don't get much stickier than being cast adrift on a raft with a 204kg (14st 5lb) Bengal tiger – will give you all the inspiration you need to extricate yourself from your own, plus some excellent practical tips.

K is for Killjoy, being a

Cure: Roxana by Daniel Defoe
Awaken your inner Roxana and learn to be the life and soul of the party. She will show you how to bring a buzz to every occasion – even when your chips are down and the last thing you feel like is leaping into the fray.

L is for Lovesickness

Cure: The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
When lovers are forced apart in this novel – in this case two women who have stumbled on an unexpected passion – lovesickness descends in good old medieval style: lassitude, despair, fits of the vapours. This will teach endurance – and give you faith that the salt in your life will return.

Manning up: Les Miserables, RSC-style

M is for Man flu

Cure: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Both patient, and carer(s), will benefit enormously if the patient loses himself in the woes of Jean Valjean, Fantine, Cosette and Monsieur Marius, Éponine and police inspector Javert, mingling his suffering with theirs, and taking comfort (and perhaps a hint) from their ability to carry on.

N is for Non-reading partner, having a

Cure: Convert or desert
Live with someone who doesn't read books? If you don't want to desert them, choose from our lists of The Ten Best Books for Turning Your Partner (male or female) on to Fiction. Suggestions include Galatea 2.2 (by Richard Powers), Microserfs (by Douglas Copeland) and Schindler's Ark (by Thomas Keneally).

O is for Obesity

Cure: Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi
Overeating often has a psychological cause. Instead of padlocking your fridge, read how the portly, widowed editor of the Lisboa's culture page goes from consoling himself with sugary lemonades and fatty omelettes aux fines herbes to salads and mineral water – all by standing up to an authoritarian regime and regaining "chieftanship" of his soul.

P is for Pessimism

Cure: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
As Heraclitus said, a man's fate is his character. Observe how Robinson Crusoe makes the best of his castaway years by looking on the bright side. If he can do it, so you can you.

Q is for Querulousness

Cure: Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
The urge to complain can become a habit. Once obituary writer Viktor catches it, he fails to notice even when happiness is delivered to him on a plate. Take this cautionary tale to heart and make a pact never to grumble – even to yourself – again.

R is for Road rage

Cure: Listen to an audiobook
Instead of jumping out to assault the incompetent driver in front, stick an audiobook in your stereo. JG Ballard's Crash will let you vent your fury; while The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith will calm and distract.

S is for Shopaholism

Cure: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
The company of Patrick Bateman is our cure for the unhealthy compulsion to acquire expensive and unnecessary products. Once you've read it, you'll no longer be able to look at a designer sock without also seeing a bloody chainsaw, and the plastic will go back in your purse.

T is for Tired and emotional, being

Cure: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
At such times, what you need is a comforting, warm and well-told yarn. Grannyish wisdom is cable-stitched into this cosy blanket of a novel, which unleashes your tears even as it mops them up.

U is for Unemployment

Cure: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Murakami's dreamlike, apparently random adventures and passive protagonists divide the unemployed into two camps. If, like a Murakami hero, you delight in the bizarreness of it all, sit back and enjoy the downtime – you're open to whatever opportunities arise, and something will come up in the end. But if Toru's accepting nature winds you up like the bird of the title, go back to the wanted ads with renewed determination – you're made for the world of work.

Revivifying: Wuthering Heights

V is for Vengeance, seeking

Cure: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Beware the snowball effect of getting your own back: taking revenge inevitably sets into motion a chain reaction of revenge and counter-revenge, ending in destruction for all. You may begin Brontë's moor-top masterpiece with vengeance in your heart, but you'll end it drained of all thoughts except that of needing a nice, reviving cup of tea.

W is for Writer's block

Cure: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The remedy for writer's block inflicted on the novelist-father in this charmingly English tale – who has not been able to put pen to paper since an unfortunate incident involving a cake knife, a neighbour and a cup of tea some years ago – is nothing short of genius. Unfortunately, it can't be easily replicated; but read between the lines and you'll get an idea of how Mortmain's block disperses that is safe to try at home.

X is for Xenophobia

Cure: See our list of The Ten Best Novels to Cure the Xenophobic
It proves that we're all much the same under the skin. If you're in any doubt, read a novel written by a native of the far-flung (to you) land in which it's set, such as Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell, See Under: Love by David Grossman, The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan and Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Y is for Yearning

Cure: Silk by Alessandro Baricco
To quell those distant, impossible dreams that can threaten to capsize your actual life, spend time with a man who hankers after a woman he barely knows, his loving wife standing by him all the while.

Z is for Zestlessness

Cure: Ragtime by EL Doctorow
Has the spice, the juice, the edge gone out of your life? Set in America at the dawn of the 20th century – when an entire nation was gripped by commotion, invention and change – Ragtime teaches you to welcome flux once more. Feel the zest flood back in.

Taken from The Novel Cure: An A-Z of Literary Remedies by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin, published by Canongate Books.