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Cloks posted:Michael Chabon? I'm not sure how people feel about his works but he's one of my favorite authors. Haruki Murakami is also pretty good and experimental. I'd recommend Kavalier and Clay and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Seconding this. I actually think that Wonder Boys is Chabon's best, though.
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Dec 9, 2014 05:43
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Skippy Dies - I will check it out. I'd heard of it, but knew basically nothing about it, other than someone I read at some point said they loved it. The Sense of an Ending - One of my favorite recent novels. Absolutely brilliant and unlike anything I've read before. Transcends the generic modern British novel style while working within it's general vibe. Michael Chabon - I feel similar about him as I do about John Updike (not that they're very similar), in that I feel like they can both write brilliantly, but never can create a satisfying story. Wonder Boys was drat good though. I'm lukewarm about Kavalier and Clay compared to most people. Murakami - I just haven't read anything by him that interested me. Granted I've only read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and After the Quake but I just kind of find him boring. Is there something of his that's more engaging? I found both his storytelling and prose to be minimalistic to the point of just being boring, and I feel like he just kind of goes for the whole unresolved mystery thing too often. I was kind of intrigued by 1Q84, but I'm not sure if I want to commit to something that long from a writer I'm mostly meh on. To expand on my thoughts about Heinlein, I think you hit the nail on the head as far as why I despise what I've read of him, Hieronymous Alloy. His style reads like a children's book but he's trying to express adult ideas, so it just comes across as spineless, weak and empty to me. Plus his ideas are just kinda lovely to begin with. I understand that he's important to the development of science fiction as a genre, but when compared to Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, and Arthur C. Clarke, he just has nothing to offer (for me). Also, gently caress grok.
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Dec 9, 2014 06:39
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jonnykungfu posted:Michael Chabon - I feel similar about him as I do about John Updike (not that they're very similar), in that I feel like they can both write brilliantly, but never can create a satisfying story. Wonder Boys was drat good though. I'm lukewarm about Kavalier and Clay compared to most people. This is absolutely true, especially when it comes to endings. I remember getting to the end of Telegraph Avenue and being all "Wait, that's it?" There's one exception to this, though-- Gentlemen of the Road . It's basically Chabon aping Robert E. Howard and other pulp fantasy writers from the early 20th century, but boy howdy does he pull it off. It's got all the wit and gorgeous prose of your typical Chabon novel coupled with a plot that actually moves.
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Dec 9, 2014 06:46
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jonnykungfu posted:
David Peace, Marlon James' Brief History Of Seven Killings, Boxer Beetle by Ned Beauman, Country Hardball by Steve Weddle, Noise by Darin Bradley I'll second Wolf In White Van and The Son too savinhill fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Dec 9, 2014 06:55
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Is Wolf in White Van actually good? I've been put off novels written by my favorite songwriters ever since I tried to read Dylan's Tarantula. Jesus, what a mess that was.
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Dec 9, 2014 07:01
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Falstaff Infection posted:Is Wolf in White Van actually good? I've been put off novels written by my favorite songwriters ever since I tried to read Dylan's Tarantula. Jesus, what a mess that was. Would a book with a cover this cool be bad? It's very good 
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Dec 9, 2014 07:07
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I have a pet theory/ question on Faulkner and Steinbeck, actually. It's been a long time since I really read about it so I am not sure exactly how popular the notion is critically, but Faulkner openly admitted that Sanctuary started out as a rush job "potboiler" written for the money at the direction of his publishing house, and reportedly when asked by a reader which character was his author stand-in, he replied "Madam, I was the corncob" (this will mean something if you know Sanctuary). So I am pretty sure a reading of it being contemporary pulp trends dialled all the way up is not only supportable but exists out there. On the other hand Faulkner did end up rewriting it to be more up to personal par before he put it out and I think it's generally viewed as holding Serious Literary Merit, but the readership-trolling element surely remains.
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Dec 9, 2014 15:52
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Falstaff Infection posted:Is Wolf in White Van actually good? I've been put off novels written by my favorite songwriters ever since I tried to read Dylan's Tarantula. Jesus, what a mess that was. On that note, Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers was a big disappointment (although it's been ~15 years since I read it; maybe it's worth another look).
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Dec 9, 2014 15:57
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Darnielle also wrote a novella for the 33 1/3 series based on Black Sabbath's Master of Reality.
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Dec 9, 2014 16:36
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Does anybody here like John Fowles? The Magus was one of my favorite books in high school, and I just read The French Lieutenant's Woman . I don't think I was familiar enough with Victorian literature to fully appreciate the pastiche aspects of TFLW, but I do really dig his style. I read Mantissa once as well but found it kinda unbearable. In a lotta ways he is kind of the quintessential "Male writer who thinks his sexism is lusty vivaciousness," but he is a drat good stylist regardless.
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Dec 9, 2014 18:36
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I love the Dutch writer Nescio's "Amsterdam Stories" (they chose a clunky, milquetoast name for the English translation): http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/amsterdam-stories/ It's modernism but with a lot of black humor. It's mostly about useless but virtuous characters versus successful but largely cynical ones, a lot of it is about the details of daily life as a bum in early 20th century Amsterdam. A bit like the Benny Profane chapters from V. Shibawanko fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Dec 9, 2014 23:04
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whatevz fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Apr 25, 2022 |
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Dec 10, 2014 02:07
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Sweet, I've got a lot of interesting stuff to check out. Particularly interested in Noise and A Brief History of Seven Killings. I'll probably read The Son and Wolf in White Van next though, based on popular opinion. Keep them coming if you want, I read like 2-3 books a week.
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Dec 10, 2014 03:12
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I really liked The Wind Up Bird Chronicle but thought IQ84 was the most disappointing thing I'd read that year. It's definitely the MOST Murakami of all Murakami's novels; all his usual quirks (a detached male protagonist, weird sex fetishes, supernatural elements that come out of nowhere) are cranked up to 11. I'd say give it a try but if it's not grabbing you after the first few chapters, feel free to skip it.
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Dec 10, 2014 04:42
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I loved Wind-up Bird Chronicle and felt lukewarm on 1Q84 as well. For my money's worth Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World is one of the better Murakami books out there. Though I did find his most recent (translated) book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage to be a nice return to form for him.
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Dec 10, 2014 04:53
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So has anyone here read Cyclonopedia? I'm about halfway in & so far it's equal parts delightful, infuriating, brilliant & meaningless. I want to talk about it. Someone talk to me about Cyclonopedia.
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Dec 10, 2014 07:19
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Rabbit Hill posted:On that note, Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers was a big disappointment (although it's been ~15 years since I read it; maybe it's worth another look). I struggled with Beautiful Losers. But on the same subject, I really enjoyed Nick Cave's And the rear end Saw The Angel. The Death of Bunny Munro was enjoyable enough, especially in audiobook form, but I wouldn't call it literature.
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Dec 10, 2014 10:40
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A Rambling Vagrant posted:So has anyone here read Cyclonopedia? I'm about halfway in & so far it's equal parts delightful, infuriating, brilliant & meaningless. I think that Negarestani, Nick Land & the OOO/Accelerate people mostly unbearable & I dislike that they've claimed Meillassoux for themselves. That said, Cyclonopedia is hilarious in very small doses. The poor mans Thomas Pynchon w/ a lot of Deleueze. Clearly I haven't engaged very well or very much with Cyclonopedia but I'm not sure that I want to.
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Dec 10, 2014 11:38
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whatevz fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Apr 25, 2022 |
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Dec 10, 2014 17:45
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From Murakami I liked Pinball but I'm generally not too impressed with him.
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Dec 10, 2014 18:46
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Falstaff Infection posted:Does anybody here like John Fowles? The Magus was one of my favorite books in high school, and I just read The French Lieutenant's Woman . I don't think I was familiar enough with Victorian literature to fully appreciate the pastiche aspects of TFLW, but I do really dig his style. I read Mantissa once as well but found it kinda unbearable. In a lotta ways he is kind of the quintessential "Male writer who thinks his sexism is lusty vivaciousness," but he is a drat good stylist regardless. Honestly, The Magus is one of the worst books I've read considered literature. It's so smug in all it's twists and turns and it's attitude towards women is dismal at best. The Unlife Aquatic fucked around with this message at 08:39 on Dec 11, 2014 |
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Dec 11, 2014 08:37
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The Unlife Aquatic posted:Honestly, The Magus is one of the worst books I've read considered literature. It's so smug in all it's twists and turns and it's attitude towards women is dismal at best. Yeah, I sort of think that if I re-read it now, presumably having matured, the sexism would be a whole lot more apparent and difficult to overlook.
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Dec 11, 2014 08:41
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The Unlife Aquatic posted:Honestly, The Magus is one of the worst books I've read considered literature. It's so smug in all it's twists and turns and it's attitude towards women is dismal at best. The worst literary book I've ever read was West With the Night. The most pretentious book I've ever read. It's all style and no substance.
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Dec 11, 2014 13:23
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Two questions. First, what do y'all think of The Corrections by Johnathan Franzen? I've read it, and have my own ideas, but I'll withhold until I hear some thoughts. It seems to be an incredibly divisive book, with responses ranging from "hubris-filled drivel" to "an exceptional literary achievement". Question two: where do I start with Daphne du Maurier?
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Dec 12, 2014 03:00
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I don't think Franzen is a poor writer, but I think his prose (at least in this novel) is so self-conscious that it ends up feeling forced, and his narrative as a whole suffers because of it. For me, The Corrections ended up feeling directionless and bland; Franzen has an undeniable skill for creating those "girl / guy next door" characters, but the novel does nothing of interest with them. His characters feel alive, and they have their complexities, but that isn't really justification enough to read about them, in the same sense that I wouldn't be all that excited about the prospect of reading a novel about my next-door neighbors. There's this simmering discontent with contemporary America / suburbia under the surface, which is the most interesting aspect of the novel, but at the end of the day the book felt like secondhand DeLillo. To be fair, I think Corrections is interesting as a time capsule, since it feels very much like a novel that captures the particular cultural mood of the time in which it was written. Maybe part of the reason I didn't particularly enjoy it is that reading it now, after the cultural landscape has shifted so heavily, it ends up feeling...quaint, I guess? That may not be the best word to describe it, but hopefully it gets the idea across. Of course the book has seen pretty much universal acclaim, and critics capable of much deeper and more nuanced readings than I seem to love it, so eh.
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Dec 12, 2014 20:21
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The Corrections is really funny. The scene with the fish in the pants, the screenplay with the constant references to breasts - all LOL moments for me! I thought the characters were great and the ending, especially the last sentence, was fantastic and hopeful.
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Dec 12, 2014 21:45
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Anyone have opinions on Samuel Beckett? Really want to tackle Three Novels in the near future. Maybe I'll get it for Christmas.
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Dec 12, 2014 23:06
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Wraith of J.O.I. posted:Anyone have opinions on Samuel Beckett? Really want to tackle Three Novels in the near future. Maybe I'll get it for Christmas. He owns bones, what is there to say? And you really shouldn't get gifts for yourself for Christmas 
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Dec 13, 2014 01:41
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BeefSupreme posted:Two questions. First, what do y'all think of The Corrections by Johnathan Franzen? I've read it, and have my own ideas, but I'll withhold until I hear some thoughts. It seems to be an incredibly divisive book, with responses ranging from "hubris-filled drivel" to "an exceptional literary achievement". Never read the corrections, but I found Freedom to be complete garbage. It read like a parody of "MFA lit." I think it's basically pseudo-Updike.
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Dec 13, 2014 01:43
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Yeah Beckett is great and he was probably a major influence on some / most / all of your favorite living authors.
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Dec 13, 2014 02:13
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What Beckett novel should I start with? I've only ever seen/read his plays.
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Dec 13, 2014 02:37
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Waiting for Godot is what he's most well-known for, but Murphy is also really good. edit: I highly doubt that any of them are bad though, so you could probably grab anything and be happy.
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Dec 13, 2014 02:53
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Anyone who is interested in Beckett and has some cash to spend, there is a pretty nice filmed collection of all (I think, at least most) of the plays called 'Beckett on Film'
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Dec 13, 2014 03:01
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Falstaff Infection posted:What Beckett novel should I start with? I've only ever seen/read his plays. Start with his later trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable.
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Dec 13, 2014 03:07
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BeefSupreme posted:
Rebecca
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Dec 13, 2014 18:02
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Boatswain posted:He owns bones, what is there to say? And you really shouldn't get gifts for yourself for Christmas
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Dec 13, 2014 18:49
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Wraith of J.O.I. posted:Parents asked for ideas and that book was one I gave. I'm just messing with you, I really don't care what you do, good choice though.
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Dec 14, 2014 12:10
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Falstaff Infection posted:Does anybody here like John Fowles? The Magus was one of my favorite books in high school, and I just read The French Lieutenant's Woman . I don't think I was familiar enough with Victorian literature to fully appreciate the pastiche aspects of TFLW, but I do really dig his style. I read Mantissa once as well but found it kinda unbearable. In a lotta ways he is kind of the quintessential "Male writer who thinks his sexism is lusty vivaciousness," but he is a drat good stylist regardless. I just read The Magus about a month or two ago. The story was, I felt, strangely weak for such a celebrated novel. I mean that in the sense that it felt so contrived that it was hard to care about what you were reading after some time. It was just as if some fawn with a raging boner was going to crash the party from behind every bush he happened upon. However, his pacing of all that hooplah and his characters' growth (whether you like them or not... I got pretty tired of women getting slapped around) were impeccable. I don't know how the characters made it through all of that, really. I don't mean within the story. I mean, I don't know how I still felt tied to them, without any concern for their situations.
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Dec 16, 2014 16:59
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red_blip posted:I just read The Magus about a month or two ago. The story was, I felt, strangely weak for such a celebrated novel. I mean that in the sense that it felt so contrived that it was hard to care about what you were reading after some time. It was just as if some fawn with a raging boner was going to crash the party from behind every bush he happened upon. However, his pacing of all that hooplah and his characters' growth (whether you like them or not... I got pretty tired of women getting slapped around) were impeccable. I don't know how the characters made it through all of that, really. I don't mean within the story. I mean, I don't know how I still felt tied to them, without any concern for their situations. I definitely didn't identify with the characters in The Magus at all. As I was reading I kept thinking, "Man am I glad that I'm not an angsty teenager anymore and that I don't think and feel like this guy". I didn't feel like that got in the way of me enjoying the novel though. For me it was more about the sense of mystery and dread that Fowles is able to evoke and I've never read anything else that did it so effectively. The pacing is a big part of that since he never really lets things die down; just piles weird on top of weird until you're just as confused as Urfe as the rules of his world get shifted around behind the scenes constantly.
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Dec 16, 2014 18:16
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novamute posted:I definitely didn't identify with the characters in The Magus at all. As I was reading I kept thinking, "Man am I glad that I'm not an angsty teenager anymore and that I don't think and feel like this guy". I didn't feel like that got in the way of me enjoying the novel though. For me it was more about the sense of mystery and dread that Fowles is able to evoke and I've never read anything else that did it so effectively. The pacing is a big part of that since he never really lets things die down; just piles weird on top of weird until you're just as confused as Urfe as the rules of his world get shifted around behind the scenes constantly. Hahaha I identified like crazy with Urfe when I was 15, which may not reflect that well on me as a teenager. But I do think he's written in such a way that he's inherently appealing/relatable to immature young men. He's what they think "deep, manly, artistic feelings" looks like, basically.
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Dec 16, 2014 21:15
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