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[ejp626]

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.

So I like a few of the authors on your list but can't bear Nabokov. I cannot find a way to take any interest in anything any of his characters get up to. I didn't realize this before I actually got into his earlier works --- and I ordered the Library of America set of his novels written in English. I'm still trying to make my way through a few more of his later novels, but can tell that before too much longer, I'll give up and donate the set to the library.

[jazzbo]

I sortof agree about Mann, but I have to say I think all his Joseph in Egypt novels are fascinating and among my favorite novels.

[Pete C]

Nabokov. I cannot find a way to take any interest in anything any of his characters get up to.

Not even Quilty?

[ejp626]

Nabokov. I cannot find a way to take any interest in anything any of his characters get up to.

Not even Quilty?

I'm stuck halfway through Lolita. I don't think I've made it to the introduction of Quilty, unless he started off as a very minor, incidental character. I actually wished I enjoyed these books more, since I know Nabokov is an important writer, but I don't connect with them.

[jazzbo]

[BruceH]

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.)

[ejp626]

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.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

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

[BillF]

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.

[Matthew]

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.

[jazzbo]

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.

[BillF]

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

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

[sidewinder]

Amazingly good read. What a character !

[Pete C]

[johnlitweiler]

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.

[jlhoots]

Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl

[paul secor]

Graham Greene: The Heart of the Matter

[Matthew]

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.

[medjuck]

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.

[Pete C]

The Heart of the Matter and A Burnt Out Case are tied for my two favorite Greene novels.

[B. Goren.]

[Matthew]

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.

[Pete C]

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.

[A Lark Ascending]

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Edited August 22, 2012 by A Lark Ascending