which books in the 20thC extended the boundaries of what is possible ie the form a book could take...?

Question

who were the inovators and revolutionaries and what specifically were the possibilities they opened up.

all im asking is what books were a radical departure from everything that had gone before.

Answer 1

With all due respet to every other author of the 20thC, the easiest and most comprehensive answer must be the works of James Joyce. He only wrote and completed five: "Dubliners," "Chamber Music," "A Portrait of the Author as a Young Man," "Ulyesses," and "Finnegan's Wake."
"Ulysses" itself is the end of western thought in literature. In "Ulysses," Joyce explores every possibility of the novel. You can devote your entire life to reading and rereading this "novel" and never understand it completely. You'd be dead long before the last critcism of this novel hd been written which had exlained some of its mysteries. If you knew the meaning of every word and the significance of every word and passage in this novel, you would know far more than any college degree in the humanities could provide you with. But don't believe me--try it yourself. Read it along with Homer's version, several dictionaries and encyclopedias, sheet music, a good set of annotations, and an internet connection with Google access, or just plunge right in and read it on its own--despite Joyce's erudition, "Ulysses" is a great story!.
I'm sure this wasn't the answer you were looking for, and I could list other innovative authors and books of the 20thC, but none of them come close to Joyce in the realm of revolution, innovation, exploring (or even defining!) the boundaries a book could take. All others pale in comparison or are simply imitative--no author who read Joyce was not influenced by him, and every author who tried to write anyhing innovative in any language without reading him first has done him or herself a great disservice.

Answer 2

I'd surely count among those books the ones written by the guys from the Oulipo group, Italo Calvino especially, for instance "If on a winter's night, a traveler". And also lots of books by Jose Saramago, and all those strange little things written by Jorge Luis Borges.

Calvino's novel isn't about some story going on, but rather about "books: what they are and ways to operate with them". Borges too has this strange way of getting outside the book, even while still within the book. As to Saramago, when I read his things I get sometimes the feeling that, seeing the author in front of me (between me and the book), he suddenly turns around and stares at me.

All three of them really enjoy teasing the reader - for instance, I started to read Calvino's Traveler right after I've left the Bookshop, on the street, in the tram, while the book does begin with the main character buying the book (this very same book, Calvino's Traveler) and reading it in the bus on the way home. Books within books within books.

Answer 3

Truman Capote's In Cold Blood was the first ever non-fiction novel. Fantastic book, if you've never read it try and get hold of a copy.

Answer 4

I realise it's not what you're looking for, but I would say Colour Photographs.