| Author | Message | ||
     cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 607 Registered: 05-2005 |
I have picked up on various bands/albums and films/directors from this board but not so much on the literature front. In the spirit of listmania here are my favourites (as with music top tens this may and probably will change from time to time) : 1. F Scott Fitzgerald 2. Cormac McCarthy 3. Herman Melville 4. John Steinbeck 5. Daniel Woodrell 6. Harper Lee (TKAMB is perfect) 7. James Crumley 8. Richard Stark 9. Dennis Lehane 10. Charles Portis (True Grit is another perfect book) A younger me would have picked a more 'high brow' 10 but my previous snobbery towards crime and genre fiction was dispelled after a couple of Chandlers, Ellroy etc and a more receptive me dived in to Crumley and Lehane | ||
| Lewisdhead Member Username: Lewisdhead Post Number: 90 Registered: 01-2007 |
Douglas Coupland Haruki Murakami Hari Kunzru Patrick McCabe I'm not a prolific reader but these are a few authors I return to. | ||
| Lewisdhead Member Username: Lewisdhead Post Number: 91 Registered: 01-2007 |
I'd like to add James Frey to the above list. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 667 Registered: 10-2006 |
I do love the so-called classics, Dickens above all, along with Austen, Thackery, Trollope, the Brontes, Gaskell, Eliot. Wilkie Collins was a great discovery just a few years back, the Moonstone and Woman in White are marvellous. Then two summers ago, Hugo's Miserables, which is another stunning read. I've been reading some early Hardy recently, a bit less Cosmic Gloom than the later stuff, and very enjoyable. Moving up, Fitzgerald and Hemingway dominated my life in my mid-twenties, especially the former. I think, sentence for sentence, one of the most perfect writers ever. I love Samuel Beckett's novels and short stories, more so than the plays. A little goes a long way, perhaps, but the humour is always there to help. P G Wodehouse is one of the few authors I've reread constantly, life's usually too short for rereading otherwise. Donald E Westlake (aka Richard Stark) is another favourite comic writer, along with Terry Pratchett. Just the other day I was thinking, as we finished watching the excellent Danish TV crime series The Bridge, just how much we owe today to Ed McBain: his wonderful 87th Precinct stories were after all the acknowledged model for Swedish couple Sjowall and Wahloo’s 1960s ten-book Martin Beck detective sequence which, with its “society is to blame” sense of social awareness became the template for Mankell’s Wallander series – which in turn launched the “Nordic noir” explosion that has brought us Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbo, Arnaldur Indridason, Karin Fossum, and many others, as well as the subsequent Wallander TV series and its offspring such as the Killing, the Bridge, Beck and so on. In addition, the 87th Precinct books were also the inspiration behind TV’s Hill Street Blues cop show – one of the later 87th books in fact includes a highly entertaining segment where the precinct detectives muse over the likelihood of Hill Street as a fictionalised version of their own “real-life” exploits – whose innovative interweaving story lines and large cast were used as the model for St Elsewhere, ER, Grey’s Anatomy and so forth. My other favourite detective writer is Robert B Parker, whose first ten or twelve Spenser books are excellent. Oh, and Ross McDonald - I was amused to see that Warren Zevon was a big fan of his, The Galton Case is one of the best hard-boileders ever. Ian McEwan and Jonathon Coe for modern writers, when they're on form. I'm reading Franzen at the moment: well-written soap opera. But once again an unconvincing portrayal of a rock star. I always think writers should steer clear of rock. And Philip Roth. If that man doesn't win the Nobel before he pegs out, there's no justice etc etc. And that's enough babbling, perhaps. I love books. | ||
| cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 608 Registered: 05-2005 |
Stuart, Some interesting thoughts on the crime genre there, I am a big Richard Stark fan too, the Parker novels are great aren't they? Jim Thompson is very good and I have just discovered Eric Ambler who is an excellent writer. I definitely check out The Galton Case on your recommendation. Dogs of Winter by Kem Nunn is a surf noir which I would highly recommend to you if you havent read it. Anyone who hasnt read True Grit should ignore any thoughts on the film and seek it out as it is a brilliant book. I enjoy Jonathan Coe, cant get on with McEwan though my wife is a fan. | ||
| cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 609 Registered: 05-2005 |
just ordered a copy of The Galton Case! | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 668 Registered: 10-2006 |
I hope you like it, Cosmo. It was one of those paperbacks I picked up, read and then immediately bought five more copies to send to friends. McDonald writes beautifully - there's very little actual violence in his books, they're usually to do with unravelling dysfunctional families with a dark secret that suddenly explodes into a crime that requires Lew Archer's attention. The Galton Case is maybe the most autobiographical of the series, which is perhaps why it has a particularly vivid atmosphere and some of his best writing. Chandler was the obvious model, but McDonald is less flashy, perhaps more compassionate. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 5071 Registered: 05-2005 |
I too disdained crime novels, until I actually read one and found I loved the genre. Anyone who likes crime has to read Northern Irish writer Stuart Neville. He will chill your bones. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 677 Registered: 10-2006 |
It's a shame not to persevere with McEwan though, CV, since the satisfactions of his best stuff are so rewarding. Have you tried The Innocent, his Berlin spy thing? As usual with his books, there are certain long passages there that have me sweating into the sofa. Even Enduring Love, which I didn't much like, has a first twenty or so pages which actually had me putting down the book because my heart was racing so fast I had to relax before I could continue. I think the Innocent, Child in Time, Atonement and Chesil Beach all hit the target full on. He has a gift for ratcheting up tension which many thriller writers would envy. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 769 Registered: 04-2005 |
Stuart, maybe 'Saturday' by McEwan is another example of steering clear of rock? The portrayal of the blues guitar playing son just doesn't ring true. But the rest of the novel builds the tension brilliantly. For some reason he seems deeply unfashionable as a writer at the moment ? | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 678 Registered: 10-2006 |
That whole damn family in the book drove me crazy, Andrew. If only they'd been a little flawed, like one of Franzen's horrendous clans, the book might have worked better. Obviously writers want to pay homage to the music they love, I don't know why it so rarely seems to come off. Otherwise, Saturday is certainly full of good things. Is he unfashionable now? Perhaps the Atonement backlash; but I thought that book was a miraculous success and deserved all the praise it got. McEwan (and indeed his less gifted friend Coe)are idolised here in Italy and can do no wrong. "Sweet tooth" (rather lukewarmly received in GB, I think) has already been trumpeted as his "masterpiece". | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2476 Registered: 01-2005 |
Dashiell Hammett Daniel Woodrell Cormac McCarthy Jon Krakauer Hermann Hesse in my youth of course Any Leo Tolstoy fans? I think my intital plunge will start with Anna Karenina, which I want to read before seeing the latest movie version. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 679 Registered: 10-2006 |
Michael, you're so lucky! How great to have Anna K (and then I guess War and Peace)in front of you: huge, but hugely readable, and massively enjoyable. Tolstoy was one of those writers who could barely turn out an uninteresting sentence. I think you'll find the film a bit weak-kneed afterwards, since the book is such a rich experience. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 680 Registered: 10-2006 |
I meanwhile have to get up to speed with this Woodrell guy. I didn't think I knew him at all, but I see the Ang Lee film Ride with the devil was based on one of his novels: a very literary film, I thought at the time - maybe too much so. Where should I start? | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 416 Registered: 02-2007 |
My fav Australian author has been Tim Winton. He lives in the west (WA) and writes the most magical, poetic stories of people and place. Cloudstreet is a masterpiece which, while uniquely Australian in many ways, would appeal to an overseas audience. Cloudsteet shouldve won a Booker if anyone on the judging panel bothered to read it. Just read Great Gatsby for 1st time, brilliantly constructed and contains some exquisite writing. Faulkner, Steinbeck and Kerouac were some favs when I was younger. Essays by Gore Vidal now occupying most of reading time. | ||
| cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 621 Registered: 05-2005 |
Stuart, Woe to Live On is the book which Ride with the Devil is based on, it's a brilliant book and similar in style to Blood Meridien by McCarthy. You are right about the film too it was a failure in my eyes. Winters Bone is stunning and I would say was his best. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 523 Registered: 01-2007 |
A great Australian writer an under rates is Robert Drewe-Read the short stories The Bodysurfers. His recent semi-autobiography The Sharknet really gets WA | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2477 Registered: 01-2005 |
I bought a used first edition copy of Woe to Live On two years ago. It's been up north at my best friends Jim and Suz's house in Traverse City along with my Criterion Collection DVD of Ride With the Devil for sometime now, so I better resuce them soon. The Criterion edtion DVD fleshes out some scenes that were not part of the original but were included in the novel, so I would move the Criterion RWTHD up a point and give it an 8 star (out of 10) review. It's not nearly as much an improvement though as say Apocalyse Now Redux. I ordered a copy of Winters Bone and will start reading it after Anna K. Stuart, I can't wait to start Anna K. I've been wanting to read it for years. Chris McCandless was a huge fan of Jack London and Leo Tolstoy.http://www.christophermccandless.info/fo rum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75 | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 1024 Registered: 04-2006 |
the fantastic world of the books. a life of education. i always liked literature. mostly french literature. flaubert, rimbaud, huysmans, jarry, camus, sartre. and proust! reading the 'recherche' was kind of an one year time-out. one of the most worthwhile things i've done in my life (and this is just reading!). more classics: melville, hölderlin, tolstoi (michael, anna karenina is brilliant! everything what is important to our life today is excellently described in this book), cervantes, kleist, o. henry, swift, sterne, carroll. they all had a big influence on me. at the beginning of the eighties i was fascinated by ian mcewan's stories. today i still love to read his books. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3105 Registered: 03-2005 |
This thread always makes me sad when I visit it because I used to be a voracious reader but never quite recovered from law school. And for the last ten years I've spent what might be my reading time trolling around on the web. I could have sworn that I read Anna Karenina but I only find W & P on the shelves so I guess that's a false memory. One of the funny things about me is that when I read a book I am totally immersed, so much so that my daily affect will change to match the book I'm reading. I re-read the Brothers Karamazov about a decade ago and got so depressed that I thought maybe I can't read Dostoevsky any longer. (Yes, I'm one of those persons Robert F sings about, who reads Dostoevsky.) But after I've finished a book I promptly forget everything other than the affect, which means that I have shelves full of books that I can read again and they're almost all new again! If I'd do it. Anyway, it's fun to check this thread now and then and see what I might be reading. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 710 Registered: 10-2006 |
Andreas, bravo for getting through Proust! I got stuck somewhere in Book 2, where the narrator wanders into a church and starts describing it in some detail. After 10 pages of this, I flicked ahead, oh, about 30 pages... and he was STILL in the f***in church! At which point I lost heart. But I will try again one day. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 1026 Registered: 04-2006 |
Stuart, i tried it several times over more than twenty years. I always stucked within the first 30 pages. Three thick bricks and one word after the other (in a size which nowadays i can only read wearing glasses)- not so attractive. Thanks to a friend, who awoke my interest once again and gave me a some odd volumes i started reading - and stopped one year later. A revelation. I was completely captured in Proust's world - and still been. You can call me a Proust follower. | ||
| cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 648 Registered: 05-2005 |
Loved The Galton Case Stuart, have just picked up lovely old movie tie-in copies of The Moving Target and The Drowning Pool. There's a piece in the Paris Review on John Gregory Dunne which contains this anecdote: 'I once had dinner with Ross MacDonald, who did the Lew Archer novels about a California private detective. He said he spent eighteen months actually plotting out a book—every single nuance. Then he sat down and wrote the book in one shot from beginning to end—six months to write the book and eighteen to plot it out. If you’ve ever read one of those books, it’s so intricately plotted it’s like a watch, a very expensive watch.' | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 733 Registered: 10-2006 |
That's great! Another favourite is the Far Side of the Dollar; the Underground Man, too. It's maybe best not to read too many all at once, since he does tend to rework situations and characters - especially the autobiographical disaffected, semi-orphaned young man figure - and they can start to feel a bit samey, despite the often brilliant writing. They were all out of print when I started reading him, so I had to plunder a lot of second hand book shops to make up the collection. Glad to see they're out there again. The final Archer book, the Blue Hammer, is extremely moving. Newman was a bit too flip and gorgeous for Archer: I see more mid-period Donald Sutherland or maybe Sam Shepard ... |