Seven top books in which very little happens

Aaron Robertson is an editor at Literary Hub. He has written for The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and elsewhere. His translation of Igiaba Scego's novel Beyond Babylon (Two Lines Press, 2019) was shortlisted for the PEN Translation Prize and Best Translated Book Award.

At Lit Hub he tagged seven "books in which ... very little happens." One title on the list:

Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov (1859)

The ultimate example of delayed gratification for the reader: a talented young nobleman, so tortured with doubt and indecision, and scarred by the luxuriousness of his childhood, decides to sleep and conduct almost all of his business from bed. A story with renewed, universal relevance.

Read about another entry on the list.

Oblomov is among Josh Cohen's ten top books about idleness, Jeff Somers's top five novels whose main characters are shut-ins, Judith Rosen's funniest books, John Sutherland's top ten overlooked novels, Alexandra Silverman's eight top examples of sloth in literature, Francine du Plessix Gray's five favorite fictional portraits of idleness and lassitude and Emrys Westacott's five best books on bad habits.

The Page 69 Test: Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov.

--Marshal Zeringue