Further reading:

The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis

For the spirit of its short, confessional chapters.

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The Flight of Icarus by Raymond Queneau & The Water Statues by Fleur Jaeggy

For their use of stage drama architecture in the space of a novel. Dennis Cooper has done this as well to great effect.

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The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley

For its tapestry of cartoonish and video game-like images which nonetheless inspire real fear and wonder.

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Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist

For the relentless speed of its narrative escalation.

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Thanks by Pablo Katchadjian

For its world: shaped as the negative of a photograph which you do not wish to see.

 

Malcolm by James Purdy

For the grand assembly of its cast and how they reveal themselves to one another. There is no Anglophone North American writer like Purdy in my estimation.

 

A High Wind in Jamaica by Robert Hughes

For creating my favorite pig in world literature. My book is a small homage to this pig.

 

The Notebook by Agota Kristoff

For the insouciant humor with which it handles human tragedy.

 

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

I like how the main characters talk to each other. You should reread it: it's even stranger and funnier than you remember. No one has "had to do it to us" more than Beckett.