I feel sure the best novel here is the Woolf or one of the others I haven't read.
Sanctuary is as close as Faulkner got to a hardboiled crime novel. It's more comparable to Cain than to the Black Mask boys.
I like The Glass Key. It's not as well-constructed as The Maltese Falcon but it shows Hammett reaching for a less pulpy approach, while at the same time writing his harshest scenes of violence. The central relationship between a dirty politician and his fixer (along with some elements of Red Harvest) was the basis for the Coens brothers' Miller's Crossing.
Castle Skull is another example of the mix of gothic and detective genres that Carr wouldn't perfect until the early Dr. Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale books.
The Five Red Herrings is one of the better Sayers mysteries.
Simenon was good from the start, but the best Maigret novels came later.
― Brad C., Friday, 8 January 2021 16:13 (three years ago) link
Anyone who votes for anyone other than Jean Rhys will be voting for someone that I am not voting for.
Wikipedia says: "From 1960, and for the rest of her life, Rhys lived in Cheriton Fitzpaine in Devon that she once described as 'a dull spot which even drink can't enliven much.'"
I grew up not far from there, and I still think I might come across people who remember her. I haven't yet. One day I'll go drinking in Cheriton and see if I can locate her gloriously malignant spirit.
― Tim, Friday, 8 January 2021 16:34 (three years ago) link
Love the place names in that part of the world. I see that nearby there is Stockleigh English and Upton Hellions
― Fenners' Pen (jim in vancouver), Friday, 8 January 2021 16:55 (three years ago) link
Marketa Lazarová by Vladislav Vančura
Wondering if this is as oblique as the film version.
― fish quits shock (Matt #2), Friday, 8 January 2021 18:27 (three years ago) link
Rhys. Powell's first novel is fine but slight. Must read Sanctuary.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 8 January 2021 19:10 (three years ago) link
i was assigned the good earth in middle school and then AGAIN two years later in high school. despite that i can't really remember it at all. i wonder if it still gets assigned much these days?
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 8 January 2021 19:13 (three years ago) link
I haven't read any of these. The Floating Admiral sounds interesting.
― wasdnuos (abanana), Friday, 8 January 2021 19:23 (three years ago) link
Night Flight is gorgeous. About a mail pilot who gets caught in a storm, climbs above it, and then realizes he's not going to be able to land.
― Lily Dale, Friday, 8 January 2021 21:56 (three years ago) link
Hard agree - Night Flight is beautiful.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 8 January 2021 22:18 (three years ago) link
Woolf, yet again.
― pomenitul, Friday, 8 January 2021 22:52 (three years ago) link
Content warning to anyone thinking about reading Sanctuary that it's intensely violent and contains a graphic rape scene.
― Lily Dale, Friday, 8 January 2021 23:08 (three years ago) link
The Waves vs Spacehounds Of IPC
― alimosina, Saturday, 9 January 2021 01:15 (three years ago) link
i'm happy to see love for night flight, the opening pages -- describing what it's like to fly for hours in the darkness and then finally see the dim light of a city pop up -- contain some of my favorite writing ever.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 9 January 2021 05:29 (three years ago) link
i hate V Woolf but it's hard not to vote for the wavs
― Uptown Top Scamping (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 9 January 2021 05:31 (three years ago) link
Hanley's BOY is excellent but brutal and one of the saddest novels i can think of.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Saturday, 9 January 2021 11:50 (three years ago) link
Do love de Saint-Exupery. he's so much more than the Little prince's author ho ho.I think the premise of taht comes from him getting lost while flying the mail doesn't it?
The Road Back by Remarque is presumably somewhat connected to All Quiet on the Western Front? though I thought the protagonist of that didn't survive.again not come across a lot of these. I thought I might be more familiar from a certain point and assumed that was earlier than this. would have at least come across some of these titles
― Stevolende, Saturday, 9 January 2021 16:50 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Sunday, 10 January 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Monday, 11 January 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1932
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 11 January 2021 14:46 (three years ago) link