Castaway by James Gould Cozzens

Castaway is a dreamlike fantasy that has become a favorite book. It has been described as post-apocalyptic, or a comment on modern consumerism, and it has a finale that remains to me shocking and mysterious.

Like a modern-day Robinson Crusoe washed up on a deserted island, Mr. Lecky awakens from unconsciousness in the basement of a nine-floor department store, retching and uncontrollably shaking. In the darkness, he listens for pursuing footsteps; to be pursued and know it was hardly better than being pursued and not know it. Unsure where or when he is, he arms himself with a knife in the silverware department, gripping it to his chest to ascend the stairway. A directory lists supplies on each floor - In furniture, he erects a makeshift fort; in groceries, he feasts on tinned goods; in hardware, he collects rope and lanterns; in sporting goods, he collects guns and ammunition. The store is well supplied with more than a man could ever use or desire - abundance to one who never had the luxury of more than a trifling sum. What is left for a man to do but defend himself from all imagined foes? Haunted by the concept a deep terror is pursuing him, he gets a staggering jolt upon finding a man in the grocery eating out of a can. Instantly attacking in self-defense, Mr. Lecky shoots the faceless creature who escapes into the darkness, prompting a storewide search. A brutal kill does not stop the haunting whimpers of the dead man, and Mr. Lecky is forced to look into the destroyed face of his victim.

Written in 1934, this monstrous waking nightmare places Mr. Lecky in rich abundance unheard of during the Great Depression. Some have called it post-apocalyptic after an untold catastrophe, and others a fever dream of imagination. It goes much deeper than that, as morose and tormented, he stumbles blindly, creating an enemy of his own psyche in a battle to the death. It is completely original and fascinating considering when it was written.

I've read it several times and still marvel.

Harder to find, but available online—as well as free on Internet Archive.

1934 / Hardcover / 181 pages