There was a very poetically written s.f. novel I read back in the 90's, I think, called ? Winterlong? that managed to take a seriously odd (disturbing, even) world w/odd (disturbing, even) characters and (from what I recall, as I don't actually remember everything that happened so much as I remember some of the imagery) a difficult to follow plot that somehow worked for me, tho I found the overall atmosphere depressing and could only read it in relatively small doses at a time . . .