Reddit mentions of Moravagine (New York Review Books Classics)

Moravagine, by Blaise Cendrars, might fit the bill, although some would likely argue that it's more nihilistic.

I have a good friend who went through something similar a few years ago. I recommended Moravagine by Blaise Cendrars (roughly "death to vagina") and he said it was the only book he liked enough to finish for years. It's not sci-fi but it's really great, and short.

It's been a tough sell for me to convince people that Moravagine is a great absurdist book, but it really is. Cendrars was a friend of Picasso and a hero of Henry Miller's. The book is about a psychologist who helps his fapping, serial killing, pederast patient loose so as to better study him. The book then turns into one of the darkest, weirdest buddy books you'll likely ever read (Russian terrorism, Texas western, WWI aerial fighting, etc). It's both very funny and very intelligent and cynical, and has been compared to Louis Ferdinand Celine's work, though Cendrars preceded Celine. Look up Cendrars here.

I say it's been a tough sell to friends because it's hard to convince anyone to read a book, and this one is short but not light. That said, every person I know who has read it seems to really like it.

I also second Isbister's recommendations to read some Alfred Jarry. At the very least, look him up if you don't know who he is--another very interesting writer and something of a precursor to people like Hunter Thompson.