I wasn't sure how to describe this but I recently read Goodbye to Berlin and loved it. I liked the fact that it starts off with something that seems glamorous but then there's some hints that something is going wrong with the society. They ignore it until it's impossible to do and it gets most of them hurt.
I'm not looking for anything apocalyptic, I would prefer historical or realistic fiction. Some other books I liked were The Secret History and Maurice, which may not help.
by Mika_And_Mika
3 Comments
Ballard’s books are mostly about that, with different things coming unglued in each of them. Try *High-Rise*.
Musil’s *The Man Without Qualities* might fit – a heterogeneous bunch of likeable but collectively clueless Viennese brought together for an utterly meaningless project as WW1 is about to hit them. There’s no explicit portrayal of disintegration but anybody reading the book knew what happened next.
Blindness
You might be interested in Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. I haven’t personally read it, though.