Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1977

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick 8
The Shining by Stephen King 3
Song Of Solomon by Toni Morrison 2
A Book Of Common Prayer by Joan Didion 2
From The Heart Of The Country by J.M. Coetzee 2
Quartet In Autumn by Barbara Pym 1
Gateway by Frederik Pohl 1
Mind Of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler 1
Our Lady Of Darkness by Fritz Leiber 1
Aunt Julia And The Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa 1
The Hour Of The Star by Clarice Lispector 1
Dreaming Of Babylon by Richard Brautigan 1
Monkey Grip by Helen Garner 1
The Ice Age by Margaret Drabble 1
Inside The Haveli by Rama Mehta 0
The Flounder by Gunter Grass 0
Eumeswil by Ernst Junger 0
One Deadly Summer by Sébastien Japrisot 0
The Foundling's War by Michel Déon 0
Staying On by Paul Scott 0
Ismael by Klas Ostergren 0
Secret Rendezvous by Kobo Abe 0
Petals Of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o 0
Orion's Belt by Jon Michelet 0
The Day Of Judgement by Salvatore Satta 0
Manual Of Painting And Calligraphy by José Saramago 0
Egalia's Daughters by Gerd Brantenberg 0
The Immolation by Goh Poh Seng 0
The End Of A Family Story by Peter Nadas 0
The Twenty Days Of Turin by Giorgio de Maria 0
The Slave Girl by Buchi Emecheta 0
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams 0
Girl On A Bicycle by Leland Bardwell 0
The Golden Child by Penelope Fitzgerald 0
The Lover by A.B. Yehoshua 0
Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo 0
The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson 0
Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson 0
The F*ggots And Their Friends Between Revlutions by Larry Mitchell 0
Falconer by John Cheever 0
The Hunted by Elmore Leonard 0
Players by Don De Lillo 0
The Professor Of Desire by Philip Roth 0
We Who Are About To... by Joanna Russ 0
The Book Of Merlyn by T.H. White 0
The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carré 0
The Women's Room by Maryiln French 0
A Judgement In Stone by Ruth Rendell 0
The Passion Of New Eve by Angela Carter 0
Dying Of The Light by George R.R. Martin 0


Daniel_Rf, Friday, 18 June 2021 09:32 (two years ago) link

No idea who's going to win this! Maybe the Dick or the Morrison?

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 18 June 2021 09:33 (two years ago) link

Didn't include it because my previous questions didn't raise much interest in the man at all on here, but should mention that in 1977 Anthony Burgess wrote a book called ABBA ABBA. Sadly it is not about the band.

Also The Plague Dogs sounds even more traumatizing than Watership Down wtf.

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 18 June 2021 09:37 (two years ago) link

Dick, his finest book.

Hour if the Star is great as well

xyzzzz__, Friday, 18 June 2021 09:57 (two years ago) link

In The Heart of the Country, maybe, different from later signature Coetzee style, but I found it a great trip

abcfsk, Friday, 18 June 2021 10:03 (two years ago) link

Hour of the Star didn't do anything for me, apologies. As usual the only other stuff I've read is SF of varying trashiness - Gateway, Scanner, Shining. Scanner the best obv. I remember starting The Plague Dogs but don't know if I finished it. I've read The Once and Future King (great), not really sure how The Book of Merlyn fits into it ("some parts of it were incorporated into the final editions of the previous books" ??).

Welcome to the Lispector doubters club ledge, it's just you and me I'm afraid.

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 18 June 2021 10:49 (two years ago) link

I am voting for Salvatore Satta because The Day of Judgement s brilliant.

Also BRB I'm off to make a bunch of sock puppet accounts in anticipation of the next poll.

Tim, Friday, 18 June 2021 13:46 (two years ago) link

Seen the Satta knocking about 2nd hand, will get it next time.

xyzzzz__, Friday, 18 June 2021 14:22 (two years ago) link

book of common prayer is prob my favorite work of fiction by joan didion even though this will be the second time i've voted for her in these polls

love lispector, have hour of the star in the to-read pile

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 18 June 2021 14:26 (two years ago) link

What I remember ov Scanner v powerful and he's puking up his lifestyle catching up with him, examining entrails/consulting oracles, thee master novelist, level slogger and downhill pilgrim racer---but don't remember enough to feel compelled to vote for it---so once again I'll go for the Butler as part of the Patternmaster whole: chronicle/s of a post->cult, via transmigration of souls, a twisted way of dealing w the Black Diaspora, among other things, also divisions within

dow, Friday, 18 June 2021 17:54 (two years ago) link

I've read exactly zero of these. I guess 1970s is one of my blind spots.

o. nate, Friday, 18 June 2021 17:56 (two years ago) link

(Good journey into and alongside her work in recent New Yorker)

dow, Friday, 18 June 2021 17:56 (two years ago) link

If write-ins are allowed, I vote for Guido Morselli's "Dissipatio H.G.: The Vanishing", which I believe was originally published in Italian in 1977.

o. nate, Friday, 18 June 2021 17:57 (two years ago) link

aunt julia and the scriptwriter is probably my favourite vargas llosa so i'll go with that

《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Friday, 18 June 2021 17:58 (two years ago) link

Between Solomon or The Shining...chose the former.

heyy nineteen, that's john belushi (the table is the table), Friday, 18 June 2021 20:40 (two years ago) link

bridge to terabithia is a devastating children’s book.

probably song of solomon tho

mookieproof, Friday, 18 June 2021 20:49 (two years ago) link

Song of Solomon!

Heavy Messages (jed_), Friday, 18 June 2021 21:07 (two years ago) link

I've read exactly zero of these. I guess 1970s is one of my blind spots.

To be fair this year seems particularly thin on canonic classics.

Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 19 June 2021 14:51 (two years ago) link

Our Lady of Darkness is an excellent semi-autobiographical novel of supernatural horror

Brad C., Saturday, 19 June 2021 15:17 (two years ago) link

I think A Scanner Darkly is a masterpiece. I like most Philip K. Dick just fine, but A Scanner Darkly is on my short list of favorite books.

Lily Dale, Saturday, 19 June 2021 23:00 (two years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Monday, 21 June 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link

i've read gateway and a scanner darkly. both great. not voting.

wasdnuos (abanana), Monday, 21 June 2021 01:44 (two years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1978

Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 10:28 (two years ago) link


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