BillF Posted August 11, 2012 Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 It just screams "I am a serious, serious author I find that Garcia-Marquez screams that with every literary breath he takes. It's an attitude that turns me off to a number of very different authors, but who have this flaw in common: Thomas Mann, Margaret Atwood, Saul Bellow (maybe the most overrated American novelist?), Milan Kundera, and others. Nabokov has enough humor and verbal brilliance to counteract this tendency. I'm with you on most of those authors, but personally, I think Bellow had some verbal brilliance at times (at other times he could be a bit annoying and pretentious.) I think Augie March is quite good, and I also enjoyed The Dean's December. My problem with Bellow is that he truly seemed to be writing the same story over and over (conniving family members, particularly the uncles), the narrator is almost always a not-very-settled family man with a roving eye or a man in the midst/recovering from a painful divorce. Women always seem to be the root of the problem in a Bellow novel. I don't always care for where Philip Roth goes in his writing, but I think he ended up expanding well beyond his original template or imaginative world. I used to be very keen on Bellow in the 60s, when I was in my twenties and he was the latest thing, but I could never get into the ones after Herzog. In later years the only ones I've gone back to and re-read have been the earliest: Dangling Man and The Victim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted August 11, 2012 Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 Savored this one slowly and just finished it. Amazing book. Caused much thinking on my part. Not sure what to start next. Second book in a row about Paul. Interesting. I knew Saul/Paul was a Farisee and proud of it; and a member of the ruling classes; and a Roman Citizen not above pulling rank when accused of sedition. All that stuff in his writings about 'being a new creature' was hype, because you can see that he remained what he was; someone who really thought that the Government should be obeyed, that slaves should obey their masters, and hadn't much conception of what people (even now) had/have to do to get by. MG I think the reality of Paul is WAY more complicated than what you suggest, but that's what makes him such an interesting figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted August 11, 2012 Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 I'm with Matthew. Plus there's Paul, and half the writings attributed to him but no likely written by him. Anyway, I've read two fascinating books about Paul this year that have really made me think. And I pay no higher compliment to a book or an author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 Savored this one slowly and just finished it. Amazing book. Caused much thinking on my part. Not sure what to start next. Second book in a row about Paul. Interesting. I knew Saul/Paul was a Farisee and proud of it; and a member of the ruling classes; and a Roman Citizen not above pulling rank when accused of sedition. All that stuff in his writings about 'being a new creature' was hype, because you can see that he remained what he was; someone who really thought that the Government should be obeyed, that slaves should obey their masters, and hadn't much conception of what people (even now) had/have to do to get by. MG I think the reality of Paul is WAY more complicated than what you suggest, but that's what makes him such an interesting figure. I'm sure. The point of my post was to expose how little I did know. Finished the Musketeers series today. Been a LOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG and good read Now starting to reread Harry Turtledove's World War series, because I've just got a recent addition, tacked on to the end. Another long read. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 Amazingly good read. What a character ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnlitweiler Posted August 16, 2012 Report Share Posted August 16, 2012 Just finished Nixonland by Rick Perlstein. It's obsessive reading like a James Ellroy novel, a lot of the same crimes too. When Nixon was pres. I worked for a newspaper-clipping service and Perlstein's book captured a lot of that period paranoia for me. While some of his reasoning might be arguable, his conclusion feels right: America is divided into 2 kinds of people - we good, honest, hardworking, God-fearing folks and those snobby people with college educations who look down on us. Nixon didn't invent this divide but his genius was in the ways he amplified it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Graham Greene: The Heart of the Matter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Graham Greene: The Heart of the Matter I've read that about three times, and each time I've come away thinking about the characters completely different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Ry Cooder's" Los Angeles Stories". A series of (sometimes interlocking) stories set in downtown LA in the '40s and '50s. Noir with a bit of magic realism. As you might expect there's a lot of music. (John Lee Hooker makes an appearance in one story.) This is fine literature not just something from a celebrity dilettante. (Is Cooder even a celebrity?) I may have enjoyed it more because I was briefly living in downtown LA when I read some of the stories-- the first one takes place exactly where I was living-- but I continued to enjoy and admire it when I returned home to Santa Barbara. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 The Heart of the Matter and A Burnt Out Case are tied for my two favorite Greene novels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Goren. Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted August 21, 2012 Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 Starting to read The Library of America two volume set Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s & 1940s, starting off with Horace McCoy's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Interesting novel, I'll have to watch the movie sometime, I've never seen it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 I'll have to watch the movie sometime, I've never seen it. Yowza, Yowza! I thought it was great when it first came out, haven't seen it since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 (edited) And about to start: With assistance from... Edited August 22, 2012 by A Lark Ascending Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crisp Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 Just finished a couple of Simon Brett Fethering mysteries: The Shooting in the Shop and Bones under the Bach Hut. The former disappointed, but the latter is one of his best and quite brave towards the end in some of the opinions he expresses. Now reading Big Money by P.G. Wodehouse, and it's a corker: rather anarchic and irreverent but very witty; not too much romance (so far). Wodehouse at his best really. Must read something literary soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 Have you read: This one didn't win the Booker Prize, Sacred Hunger did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 Have you read: This one didn't win the Booker Prize, Sacred Hunger did. No. But having read the blurb on Amazon I will add it to my list. The deconstruction of historical myths always appeals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 I always found Unsworth a chore to read. "Sacred Humger" suffered from entropy to my way of reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 I always found Unsworth a chore to read. "Sacred Humger" suffered from entropy to my way of reading. His books vary wildly. Sacred Hunger is work, but worth it. Morality Play is a breeze. After Hannibal is a hoot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 Finished The Snowman & The Red Breast. This one is next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 I've read Redbreast. Nemesis follows directly after, then The Devil's Star, though The Devil's Star was the first to be translated into English. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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