Less impressive than 1974 on the whole, I think.
Lobbying hard for The Doomed City, which imo is on a level with Kafka's best stuff.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 11 June 2021 10:29 (two years ago) link
Bold claim.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 11 June 2021 11:59 (two years ago) link
The Female Man by Joanna RussHigh-Rise by J.G. BallardThe Autumn Of The Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia MarquézThe Chain Of Chance by Stanislaw LemCorrection by Thomas BernhardW Or The Memory Of Childhood by Georges PerecWomen As Lovers by Elfriede Jelinek
Gonna go with High Rise though there's plenty of great stuff.
JR is the one I'd like to read, and also re-read The Female Man.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 11 June 2021 12:03 (two years ago) link
Danny the Champion of the World and Salem's Lot are two of the most important books of my childhood, High Rise of my 20s.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 11 June 2021 12:20 (two years ago) link
I re-read Salem's Lot a couple of years back and it scared the bejesus out of me. I think I'll vote for that.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 11 June 2021 12:21 (two years ago) link
Would be nice to think I'll ever get around to JR.
― Chris L, Friday, 11 June 2021 12:43 (two years ago) link
The Female man is angry, excoriating, experimental, a pinnacle of feminist SF.
― I was born anxious, here's how to do it. (ledge), Friday, 11 June 2021 12:59 (two years ago) link
The Dead Father & Correction are two very funny books that I loved reading. Will wait to see which one gets less love here (probably Barthelme?) and throw it a vote.
― Mark E. Smith died this year. Or, maybe last year. (bernard snowy), Friday, 11 June 2021 13:05 (two years ago) link
As always, there are several I still want to read, by writers I've read, and don't remember Salem's Lot well enough--think I'll go with Rumble Fish as Lifetime Achievement Oscar.
― dow, Friday, 11 June 2021 14:02 (two years ago) link
JR, Rumble Fish, and Willard are the only ones I've read— going to sit this one out, because I remember not really enjoying any of them.
― heyy nineteen, that's john belushi (the table is the table), Friday, 11 June 2021 14:53 (two years ago) link
haven't finished JR and haven't read the rest... suspect the thomas bernhard is bangin'
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 June 2021 15:10 (two years ago) link
Correction & JR were where my eye was drawn right away: being bombarded by one voice vs dozens. I gather Gaddis’s last book is a sort of tribute to Bernhard too. Loved the dead father & high rise in my youth, never revisited - gonna give this to bernhard
― The 💨 that shook the barlow (wins), Friday, 11 June 2021 15:48 (two years ago) link
See The Old Lady Decently by B.S. Johnson
This is massively underrated in the Johnson canon imo. Chunks of disparate stories winding together, frequently autobiographical, sometimes more abstract, very often moving.
The Perec also a contender but BSJ wins.
― emil.y, Friday, 11 June 2021 16:01 (two years ago) link
I have never read See The Old Lady Decently. Fair number of books l like on here but W or the Memory of Childhood wins by a country mile.
― Tim, Friday, 11 June 2021 16:05 (two years ago) link
Ok, gonna get into more detail re: The Doomed City.
The book follows the progress of the protagonist, who moves from the very bottom of his society (trash removal) to the highest levels of its bureaucracy. This is not due to his own merit or even connections, but because the whole of society is actually an Experiment conducted by outsiders - perhaps aliens - who move individuals from role to role following no logic discernable to them. There is also no consensus on what said Experiment is supposed to be about, or what it's for - some actually believe that it has already failed, some believe that it has been abandoned and they are continuing with no actual oversight.
This is of course an allegory for the Soviet Union, but the fact that the authors purposefully made the cast of characters international, including an American, makes me think that they were also grasping at something more universal concerning modern life.
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 12 June 2021 09:34 (two years ago) link
I have never read See The Old Lady Decently.
I started reading it a few weeks ago and realized I'd read it before and didn't like it then either.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Saturday, 12 June 2021 09:44 (two years ago) link
Booooooooooooo.
― emil.y, Saturday, 12 June 2021 14:38 (two years ago) link
You can't win 'em all.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Saturday, 12 June 2021 15:45 (two years ago) link
I was saying booooryan johnson
― The 💨 that shook the barlow (wins), Saturday, 12 June 2021 16:35 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 14 June 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
Write-in vote for Edward Abbey's "Monkey-Wrench Gang".
― o. nate, Monday, 14 June 2021 20:41 (two years ago) link
Correction.
Humboldt's Gift stars promisingly and ends hilaroiusly but the middle is a slog.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 June 2021 20:48 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I liked the beginning, but didn't make it through the middle---maybe I'll try again, now that I've read the Original Humboldt, Delmore (some of whose best stories seem like they may have encouraged some of Bellow's best).
― dow, Monday, 14 June 2021 23:15 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 15 June 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1976
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 15 June 2021 09:58 (two years ago) link
Write-in for How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup :)
― imago, Tuesday, 15 June 2021 11:23 (two years ago) link
Very little consensus here.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 15 June 2021 14:30 (two years ago) link