Book recommendations?

[Carol]

Ali wrote:
> > > If you're into translations, Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian
(Mabel Lee translation), winner of a Nobel for literature, is
absolutely brilliant.  It's written in second person, which can be
grating for long durations but manages to somehow not be in this ~500
pgs novel.
> > <snip>
> > 
> > Carol responds:
> > 
> > Written in second person ("you")? How does that work? I don't
understand how a novel could be about the person addressed. 
> > 
> > Carol, too confused to explore the question further
> 
> Magpie:
> It's not unheard of to write a novel in the second person. Bright 
Lights, Big City is also written that way. It's not about the person 
> addressed so much as telling the person addressed to imagine 
> themselves in the place of the person speaking. The narrator is 
> talking to/about himself:
> 
> "You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at
this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that
the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy."
> 
> And:
> 
> "You get down on your knees and tear open the bag. The smell of warm
dough envelops you. The first bite sticks in your throat and you
almost gag. You will have to go slowly. You will have to learn 
everything all over again." 

Carol:

Thanks for the clarification. I think I'll stay with first- or
their-person narration. I can see a reader identifying with "your"
situation, but how can the character have any identifiable personality
traits?

Why not use "I" and present tense (though there's no logical
explanation for such a narrative strategy--the narrator can't write or
tell the story and live it at the same time).

Carol, who thinks that discussion of a book whose protagonist is
referred to as "you" would be rather difficult (at least an unnamded
"I" can be called "the narrator," but "you" isn't narrating--or should
I say "aren't" as if "you" weren't in quotes?)

Carol, who likes Ali's other suggestions but will pass on this one