| Author |
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Jeff VanderMeer
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 07:29 pm: | |
Just by way of discussion...Every day I rearrange the order of these... 
Jeff
• Fantasy: Essential Reading.
1. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
2. The Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake
3. Lanark, Alasdair Gray
4. Jerusalem Poker, Edward Whittemore
5. The Chess Garden, Brooks Hansen
6. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, Angela Carter
7. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
8. Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
9. Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter
10. Observatory Mansions, Edward Carey
11. Possession, A.S. Byatt
12. In Viriconium, M. John Harrison
13. Arc d'X, Steve Erickson
14. V, Thomas Pynchon
15. Sinai Tapestry, Edward Whittemore
16. Quin’s Shanghai Circus, Edward Whittemore
17. If Upon a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italo Calvino
18. Collected Stories, Franz Kafka
19. The Master & Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
20. Mother London, Michael Moorcock
21. The Collected Stories, J.G. Ballard
22. A Fine and Private Place, Peter S. Beagle
23. The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
24. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
25. The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica, John Calvin Bachelor
26. House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski
27. The Riddle Master trilogy, Patricia McKillip
28. The Baron in the Trees, Italo Calvino
29. The Other Side, Alfred Kubin
30. The Circus of Doctor Lao, Charles Finney
31. A Voyage to Arcturus, David Lindsay
32. The Circus of the Earth & the Air, Brooke Stevens
33. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
34. Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad Pavic
35. At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brian
36. The Troika, Stepan Chapman
37. The Fan-maker’s Inquisition, Rikki Ducornet
38. Solomon Gursky Was Here, Mordechai Richler
39. Darconville's Cat, Alexander Theroux
40. Don Quixote, Cervantes
41. Poor Things, Alasdair Gray
42. Geek Love, Katherine Dunn
43. The Land of Laughs, Jonathan Carroll
44. The Wizard of Earthsea trilogy, Ursula K. LeGuin
45. The House on the Borderland, William Hope Hodgson
46. Little Big, John Crowley
47. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
48. The General in His Labyrinth, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
49. The Seven Who Fled, Frederick Prokosch
50. Already Dead, Denis Johnson
51. The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, Jeffrey Ford
52. Phosphor in Dreamland, Rikki Ducornet
53. The Passion of New Eve, Angela Carter
54. Views From the Oldest House, Richard Grant
55. Life During Wartime, Lucius Shepard
56. The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, Barry Hughart
57. The Famished Road, Ben Okri
58. Altmann’s Tongue, Brian Evenson
59. Girl Imagined by Chance, Lance Olsen
60. The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant & Other Stories, Jeffrey Ford
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Jay Caselberg
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 11:55 pm: | |
Hmm, Jeff, that's a pretty comprehensive list. I'm just wandering through, have printed it off, and am considering what, why, and if I've read them -- all of which I have not. Damn, now means I have more to add to my TBR pile. Certainly some I agree with and love there.
As far as the Carroll goes, LAUGHS above all others? I always speak about that one and MARRIAGE OF STICKS in the same breath.
Have to applaud the placement of Peake.
Somehow, I'm also missing the presence of Gene Wolfe somewhere in that list. |
jeff ford
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 06:43 am: | |
Jeff: Here's a couple more. Not for your list, but just to throw out there.
The Woman in the Dunes -- Kobo Abe
Arabian Nights and Days -- Naguib Mahfouz
The King's Indian -- John Gardner
The Adventures of Maqroll -- Alvaro Mutis
The Street of Crocodiles -- Bruno Schulz
The Hawkline Monster -- Richard Brautigan
Plain Tales From the Hills -- Rudyard Kipling
Best,
Jeff |
Des
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 08:06 am: | |
No Night Land by Hodgson? Despite its faults, I feel it contains one of the greatest fantastic landscapes ever written.
And no Jack Vance?
And I see Cordwainer Smith as a fantasy writer rather than a SF one. Des |
GabrielM
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 08:20 am: | |
Glad to see there's another fan of THE NIGHT LAND!
I like the list, although I think some pulp would spice it up -- Lovecraft, Howard and Clark Ashton Smith in particular. (This last one being something of a marriage of decadence and pulp.)
I think Millhauser deserves to be on, probably with MARTIN DRESSLER. Also Rushdie with SATANIC VERSES or MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, Orhan Pamuk with MY NAME IS RED or any other novel and Jose Saramago with just about anything.
And then there's also Cortazar, with either HOPSCOTCH or his short stories.
Plus Vance with the Dying Earth sequence.
And Peter Ackroyd's HAWKSMOOR. Or ENGLISH MUSIC....
|
Mike Simanoff
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 08:29 am: | |
I'm glad Jeffrey Ford mentioned Bruno Schulz. I'd also plug his other book in English, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass.
More Central/Eastern European spec fiction gems: Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz and anything by Danilo Kis, especially Garden, Ashes and A Tomb for Boris Davidovich. |
Rhys
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 08:57 am: | |
I'm glad Jeff Ford mentioned MAQROLL EL GAVIERO by Alvaro Mutis.
But I also agree with Mike's mention of FERDYDURKE, though I've only read the bad Penguin translation (from the Polish via French).
I'd also mention Frigyes Karinthy's CAPILLARIA.
And yes, a Jack Vance book, THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD.
Milorad Pavic's best novel, LANDSCAPE PAINTED WITH TEA.
VERMILION SANDS by J.G. Ballard (though I might go for his COMPLETE SHORT STORIES which contains the other book).
FROTH ON THE DAYDREAM by Boris Vian.
THE CYBERIAD by Stanislaw Lem.
BARON IN THE TREES and THE NON-EXISTENT KNIGHT and COSMICOMICS by Italo Calvino. (Yes, he gets three!)
Hmmm, I'd better make my own proper list. 60 books, you say? |
Des
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 09:09 am: | |
Rhys, reading Calvino's Cosmicomics at this very moment, together with Marcovaldo -- and Adam, One Afternoon. A rare treat. Des |
Des
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 09:11 am: | |
Also shocked to see no Lord Dunsany!
And no Hope Mirlees, George Macdonald?
Des |
JeffV
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 09:59 am: | |
LOL! This is not a systematic list. Which is one reason I wanted to post it here. I agree with most or all of these suggestions. And there's definitely not enough Gene Wolfe on the list. Please keep posting them! Since I plan on using this list for lectures on fantasy, it's important it be more complete than it is. I'd happily have a list going up to 150 or 200 entries! |
Mike Simanoff
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 11:18 am: | |
Speaking of bad translations: St. Petersburg by Andrey Biely. Though the book's genius shines through any translation.
More: Any Bulgakov collection with "The Fateful Eggs" and "Diaboliad," Vsevolod Garshin's collection The Signal and Other Stories (esp. "The Scarlet Blossom"), and Feodor Sologub's underrated masterpiece The Petty Demon. |
Des
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 11:24 am: | |
Still *shocked* to see no Lord Dunsany.
Or Algernon Blackwood novels, come to that.
I'm too old for such shocks. ;-)
Des |
Alan DeNiro
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 11:26 am: | |
A few teeny suggestions:
His Monkey Wife (John Collier)
The Age of Wire and String (Ben Marcus)
Dona Quixote (Leena Krohn)
The Overcoat and Other Tales of Good and Evil (Gogol)
The Intuitionist (Colson Whitehead)
In the Country of Last Things (Paul Auster)
The Starbridge Chronicles (Paul Park)
The Forest of Hours (Kirsten Ekman)
Alan
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jeff ford
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 12:13 pm: | |
Alan: I really like that His Monkey Wife too.
Best,
Jeff |
Brendan
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 01:38 pm: | |
For me, one of my favourite fantasy novels is "The Tunnel" by Ernesto Sabato . . . "On Heroes and Tombs" should also be considered fantasy, and it is probably one of the top 10 novels of the last century . . . Zola wrote a book called "La faute de l'abbé Mouret" which is also quite brilliant; as is "The Zemganno Brothers" by Goncourt and "The Juggler" by Rachilde.
Brendan |
JeffV
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 02:18 pm: | |
Okay, folks. I am experiencing this marvelous sensation of my universe expanding somewhat exponentially. The following authors I'm not familiar with, and I think some other readers might not be familiar with them, either. Could you elaborate on them? A little bit about what their work is like?
In no particular order:
Ernesto Sabato
Sologub
Hope Mirlies
Richard Brautigan
Gombrowicz
Donilo Kis
Ben Marcus
Kirsten Ekman
Leena Krohn (Dona Quixote is a great title!)
Colin Whitehead
Suhilz
Also, Des--I don't want you to go into shock, so I will place Lord Dunsany on the list as soon as possible!
Re Nightland--it's practically unreadable. It's so turgid I couldn't bear it.
Mutis is okay--it just didn't click with me.
Yes, the St. Petersburg novel by Biely--really, really bad translation. I couldn't finish it, although I could feel talented work poking out beneath the scratched surface.
To be honest--Jack Vance, beyond that "Dragon Masters" story, doesn't do much for me. I think this is a flaw in me, not in him.
Jeff Ford recommended a really good book recently--The Horned Man. I can't remember the author right now.
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Alan DeNiro
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 03:11 pm: | |
Hello Jeff (Ford. There are lots of Jeffs here). His Monkey Wife is a bizarre book, isn't it? It manages to be freakish and winsome at the same time, esp. for being written in 1930!
Two other Canadian books I'd add to the list:
Sing Me No Love Songs, I'll Say You No Prayers (Leon Rooke)
Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa (Andre Alexis)
OK, I have some 'splaining to do about four authors I recommended.
Leena Krohn is an amazing Finnish writer. None of her work is in print in the U.S., but Carcanet (maybe Bloodaxe) released a book of hers called Dona Quixota and the Gold of Orphir (two novellas, kind of like a Tor double). It's really amazing. Some of her stuff is in English at http://tinyurl.com/5syh
Kirsten Eckman is a Swedish writer, probably best known here for her mystery Blackwater. The Forest of Hours is a book about the long life of a troll.
Ben Marcus--not sure how to describe his work. Go to http://www.benmarcus.com and you can pretty much see for yourself how strange it is.
Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist posits an alternate, slightly allegorical, slightly noir world in which elevator inspectors hold great power. It involves the conspiracy to frame the first ever female African American elevator inspector as well as the quest for the perfect elevator (a quantum elevator, kind of--but everything in the book cleverly turns as an inquiry into race. The verticality of social freedoms.)
Hope that helps!
Alan |
Mike Simanoff
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 03:46 pm: | |
from MIKE SIMANOFF'S LITERARY TOUR OF SELECTED SLAVIC NATIONS*
Witold GOMBROWICZ (1904-1969): Polish absurdist writer who was stranded in Argentina by WWII, lived there for many years, and died while a resident of France. Author of many fine tales ranging from metaphysical mystery to satire and a very insightful and hilarious journal. Ferdydurke, published in 1937, is a piece of sui-generis lunatic genius, a paean to immaturity. It caused a scandal when it was published.
Danilo KIS (1935-1989): Slightly more sober and academic novelist and essayist. Born in Serbia to a Jewish Hungarian father, lived most of his life in exile in France, where he died (from lung cancer, not from living in France). Explored the timeless themes of memory and power. A Tomb for Boris Davidovich (1976) is a collection of unsettling, thematically related stories in which history becomes rewritten at the expense of innocent people. He had unruly hair.
Bruno SCHULZ (1892-1942): Polish Jew, the modern Plotinus, who first achieved moderate success by translating Kafka. Wrote (and illustrated) two books of shimmering beauty. There is absolutely no substitute for reading him, and you must consume his words immediately. Murdered by Nazis.
Fyodor SOLOGUB (1863-1927; pen name of Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov): Russian poet, playwright, novelist. In The Petty Demon (1916) he describes a word full of evil and pain, from which the only escape is fantasy or death. It is a very unsettling, purgative symbolist story. Features: sadistic schoolteachers.
*Pronunciation guide available upon request |
Luís
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 10:22 pm: | |
Hi all! Lots of great recommendations here. Glad Boris Vian was remembered, and Hodgson, Mirlees and Vance too, of course.
Mike S., have you considered Ismail Kadaré for your Slavic authors tour? Can't speak for the other books, but do try THE PALACE OF DREAMS.
Alan, loved your essay, it'll be up on Fantastic Metropolis by tomorrow!
Best, Luís |
gabe chouinard
| | Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 10:36 pm: | |
A WINTER'S TALE by Mark Helprin.
More Iain Sinclair.
And I can't imagine how you missed Rhys Hughes.
--gabe |
Brendan
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 12:37 am: | |
Hi Jeff –
Ernesto Sabato is just too cool not to have read! He is sort of the definition of Metafiction. I believe he is from Buenos Aires. Read “On Heroes and Tombs” (Sobre héroes y tumbas). Inside of this book (I think it is this book) there is a novella about the secret world of the blind, that has to be . . . Well, just read it. This author really is not only the best of the South American’s, but also one of the greatest of the century – just behind Joyce and Faulkner.
On another note, there is a book called “The Moustache” by Emanuele Carrier (I know I am probably mis-spelling the name) that is also certainly one of the best Fantasy novels of the century. The writings of Handke are also worth checking out, though I am not sure if they fall into the “Fantasy” heading or not . . .
For older books here are a few also that deserve mention: Victor Hugo – The Man Who Laughed; Villiers de L’Isle Adam – Contes Cruel; James Hogg – The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner; Balzac – Seraphita; Andreyev – The Red Laugh; Oliver Onions – The Beckoning Fair One; Count Potacki – The Seragossa Manuscript; Barbey d’Aurevilly – Les Diaboliques; Robert Hichins – Flames; Eca de Queiros – The Mandarin.
Brendan
|
Jay Caselberg
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 02:24 am: | |
Jeff, Brautigan was a trendy hippie writer in oh, a long time ago. Can't remember. I do remember IN WATERMELON SUGAR which was very big at the time. Same period of trendiness as Hesse. Actually, should one not add Herman Hesse to the list? |
Rhys
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 05:29 am: | |
Sabato is an amazing writer. He's still alive apparently, but he must be over 90 by now!
What about Bioy Casares?
Felisberto Hernandez.
Maurice Richardson, for heck's sake!
As for Dunsany: my favourite Dunsany novel is probably THE CHARWOMAN'S SHADOW.
If we are talking 'heroic fantasy', then Poul Anderson's THE BROKEN SWORD, Fletcher Pratt's THE WELL OF THE UNICORN and (especially) E.R. Edison's four novels, THE WORM OUROBOROS and the three Zimiavian books, MISTRESS OF MISTRESSES, FISH SUPPER IN MEMISON and THE MEZENTIAN GATE.
Wyndham Lewis's THE CHILDERMASS, MONSTRE GAI and MALIGN FIESTA.
Rex Warner's THE WILD GOOSE CHASE.
Boris Vian! Boris Vian! Boris Vian!
Raymond Queneau's THE SUNDAY OF LIFE.
VanderMeer's CITY OF SAINTS AND MADMEN.
Pavic's THE INNER SIDE OF THE WIND.
Sudhir Kakar's THE ASCETIC OF DESIRE.
Patrick Suskind's PERFUME.
|
jeff ford
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 05:50 am: | |
Jeff and Jay: Brautigan is a writer who gets the poo poo a lot, but I like his work. There's a real sense of play in it, an extemporaneous quality, as if he is making it up as he is going along, and some great lines. The other reason he wasn't taken completely seriously was because he had a great sense of humor. You know how important that darkness and dire circumstance is to certain writers as a means of exemplifying their profundity. Also, his style is loose and minimalist at the same time, giving people the idea that anyone could copy it. Not so. Confederate General at Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon, So the Wind Doesn't Blow It All Away, Trout Fishing in America, The Hawkline Monster and Watermelon Sugar, I think are really worth reading. Many of these have fantasy elements or are out and out fantastical. His later work didn't help his reputation -- Montana Express, Sombrero Fallout, etc. He didn't think so either and committed suicide.
I like Danilo Kis, especially his Encyclopedia of the Dead. There's a story in there I ripped off pretty good when writing "High Tea With Jules Verne."
Two other ones I really like for their sense of free wheeling invention are:
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts -- Amos Tutuola
Dr. Sax -- Jack Kerouak
Best,
Jeff |
Luís
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 06:15 am: | |
> Eça de Queirós – The Mandarin
Brendan, I should be ashamed not to have been this one to bring him up!
Also, let me add Victor Pelevin to the list.
Cheers,
Luís |
Luís
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 06:18 am: | |
I need to wake up. I meant to say "I should be ashamed not to have been ***the*** one to bring him up". :P
This drawing of attention to his own stupid mistakes was a courtesy of . . .
Luís Rodrigues |
Robert W
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 06:49 am: | |
I read most of Brautigan's books when I was in college, liked In Watermelon Sugar a lot.
Adding:
Winter's Tale--Mark Helprin
The Centaur in the Garden--Moacyr Scliar
The Unlimited Dream Company--J.G. Ballard
The Lost Steps--Alejo Carpentier
Baroque Concerto--Alejo Carpentier
A New History of Torments--Zulfikar Ghose
I think every day someone should add a few more, so that Jeff will go mad with the desire to read everything. Then we can start making up authors.
Robert |
jeff ford
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 07:08 am: | |
Robert: Too late. VanderMeer is already crazy.
Best,
Jeff |
Montmorency
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 08:48 am: | |
A modest Japanese reader throws in some pebbles to test the water.
Hope Mirlees - Lud-in-the-Mist
Mark Helprin - A Winter's Tale & Soldier of the Great War
Patrick Suskind - The Perfume
Gunter Grass - Tin Drum
Wilhelm Hauff - Three Collections
Russell Hoban - Riddly Walker
John Masefield - The Midnight Folk
Nancy Willard - Things Invisible to See & Sister Water
Sean Stewart - Mockingbird
Daniel Wallace - Big Fish
Terry Dowling - Blackwater Days
Agota Kristof - The Notebook
Glad Richard Grant is in it, but I prefer Rumors of Spring (to tell the truth, I coudn't understand View from the Oldest House).
I'm now happy to be in The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque. |
Montmorency
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 08:51 am: | |
Yes, I know, some may not pass your scrutiny. But I love them. |
JeffV
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 08:57 am: | |
All good stuff.
As Jeff F. points out, I am insane. I'm insane to be contemplating getting more books when I still have so many left to read!
Rumors of Spring is considered by some to be a pastiche of Little, Big. I don't agree, but it may have colored my putting on the list or not.
Yes--Rhys does need to be on the list. But which book? I think I kept trying to decide and mixing and matching my favorite stories.
I also debated taking off the list anyone I know, but that began to seem silly.
I tried the Hoban, couldn't get through it.
I'd like to hear more about Daniel Wallace and Agota Kristof. |
Mastadge
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 09:01 am: | |
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace is a fun touching little book which will probably get a nice re-release in the near future because it also happens to be the basis for Tim Burton's next film. |
Des
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 10:00 am: | |
The greatest Rhys Hughes work hasn't been written yet. And I agree with RH that The Charlady's Shadow is probably the optimum Dunsany.
Des |
Mike Simanoff
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 10:49 am: | |
I read Agota Kristof's The Notebook in college and wasn't impressed by it. (Then again, I've been known to change my mind.) She's Hungarian but moved to Switzerland when the Russkies invaded. She's still alive. The Notebook is a very detached metafiction about a pair of young twins and their grandmother hiding in the forests of Central Europe during WWII. It's sort of a mixture of Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Birds in terms of content and Thadeusz Borowski's This Way to the Gas Chamber, Ladies and Gentlemen in terms of style--two books which are OK but wouldn't make it to the top of any list. |
Peggy H
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 12:01 pm: | |
I'll second the comments on Daniel Wallace's Big Fish, which I really liked. However, his second novel, Ray in Reverse, I didn't like as well. |
Brendan
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 01:08 pm: | |
Rhys - Sabato is 92 I think.
Luís - The Yellow Sofa and Cousin Bazilio (sp?) are actually better books though . . . But I suppose they are not fantasy . . .
Brendan |
Jorge
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 01:45 pm: | |
The Yellow Sofa?!
I'm stumped. And I'm portuguese, for christ's sake!... But I don't know of any book by Eça under that title (or it's translation to portuguese).
What is it? |
Luís
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 01:50 pm: | |
Hi Brendan,
No, I think THE MANDARIN is the only fantastic novel by Eça. It's funny, because it stands right in the middle of his realist period.
Don't miss THE SIN OF FATHER AMARO and THE MAIAS, two absolute shockers when they were published in 1875 and 1888 respectively. THE MAIAS is a classic often disliked from highschool on because of the way it's taught, unfortunately. Education here can take all the fun out of reading if you're not careful.
Best,
Luís |
Luís
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 02:27 pm: | |
Hey, and what about Anna Kavan?
Jorge: THE YELLOW SOFA is a novel(la?), published posthumously in a collection. Haven't read it myself, but it seems it was heavily edited by Eça's son before it came out. (It's anyone's guess if these changes made the story better or worse . . .)
Cheers,
Luís |
Alan DeNiro
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 06:45 pm: | |
Yet another "Oh wait, here's another one":
Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin
Alan |
GabrielM
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 10:19 pm: | |
Arabian Nightmare is great.
The Moustache is by Emmanuel Carrere, who also wrote CLASS TRIP and GOTHIC ROMANCE, both worth reading. And the chilling true crime book THE ADVERSARY, which was one of my faves from a couple of years ago. |
jeff ford
| | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 10:42 pm: | |
Can someone tell me what The Tunnel is about. I've had a bi-lingual copy of it for years and never read it. Just a hint to get me interested perhaps. If you don't mind. Thanks
Best,
Jeff |
Brendan
| | Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 12:33 am: | |
Jeff –
The Tunnel is the first instalment of Sabato’s obsession with the blind . . . It is a strange little book, that more or less gets continued in On Heroes and Tombs – in On Heroes and Tombs you really find out what The Tunnel is about . . .
The Yellow Sofa – What an awesome little tale! A masterpiece of Naturalistic humour; along the lines of The Sin of Father Amaro and the more ridiculous moments in The Maias . . . Certainly worth reading – and it can be read in a day or two . . . For humour Eça and Gogol are the masters.
Brendan
|
Luís
| | Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 12:38 am: | |
Also very funny is Eça's THE RELIC.
Best, Luís |
Des
| | Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 12:47 am: | |
Has anyone mentioned Sarban's RINGSTONES anthology?
Or: The Unconsoled By Kazuo Ishiguro ?
Des |
jeff ford
| | Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 06:17 am: | |
Brendan: Thanks for the info. I'll check it out. I remember at the time I picked up The Tunnel (it was a black covered mass market edition) I could have gotten the Heroes and Tombs one also but didn't. Now I guess it's out to the used books sites on the internet. I'm interested though for sure.
Best,
Jeff |
Rhys
| | Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 07:51 am: | |
Did someone mention Anna Kavan?
ICE is brilliant.
Her short stories can be pretty awesome too.
Did someone mention Amos Tutuola?
THE PALM WINE DRINKARD is so bizarre it's in a class of its own!
The works of Georges Bataille are almost unbearable.
Three novels by D.M. Thomas -- ARARAT, SWALLOW, SPHINX. A loose trilogy. Far superior to his more famous THE WHITE HOTEL.
Thomas Disch? THE BUSINESSMAN and 334 are his best novels...
A beautiful short piece by Carlos Fuentes called AURA.
AURORA by Michel Leiris. |
JT Lindroos
| | Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 09:38 am: | |
On Leena Krohn:
A very easy place to start is Sphinx or Robot, children's stories, web only, short and delightful: http://www.kaapeli.fi/krohn/sphinx/
Her website is: http://www.kaapeli.fi/krohn/, mostly in Finnish though links to some translated work. |
Jeff VanderMeer
| | Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 02:50 pm: | |
This is great--thanks for all of these wonderful suggestions. I think if you'll keep posting them, I'll get caught up with reading them and by the end of the year post a more definitive 200-book list on my Web site.
I guess I'm curious--how many of you have read Brooks Hansen's The Chess Garden? One of my favorite books. |
GabrielM
| | Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 06:30 pm: | |
I've read it and I agree it's excellent. Well worthy of inclusion on any neocanonical list!
Did you read PERLMAN'S ORDEAL? I thought it was very well-written but somewhat baffling, I couldn't quite figure out what he was trying to do at the end.
I haven't read his latest, the novel where Napoleon is a character. |
GabrielM
| | Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 06:39 pm: | |
Jeff F -- As for THE TUNNEL, I read it many years ago in high school (assigned reading, would you believe). First person narrative of an Argentine painter's descent into insanity and criminality following an affair with a woman who may be involved with another, if I recall correctly. It's a classic of existentialist Latin American literature, but Sabato's never really been my cup of tea, I must admit. |
Nicholas Liu
| | Posted on Sunday, February 16, 2003 - 10:23 am: | |
I've read The Chess Garden. Brilliant book, one of my favourites of all time. |
DF Lewis
| | Posted on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 02:12 pm: | |
I've suddenly realised that a name seems to be missing from all these lists here and elsewhere, unless I'm mistaken. A fantasy writer that had an enormous influence on me -- and tends to be forgotten these days. (I've even inexcusably forgotten him, till today!) A massive figure.
He wrote The Sot-Weed Factor,Chimera, Giles Goat Boy, Sabbatical, Letters among many others.
John Barth, of course.
Des
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Jeff VanderMeer
| | Posted on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 03:23 pm: | |
Yes! I was going to post about him. I thought it odd, too. And I meant to have him on my list to begin with. |
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