lol at Whomst
Hemingway narrowly over Native Son
The Bride Wore Black is probably the best of Woolrich's insane noir melodramas
― Brad C., Monday, 8 February 2021 14:41 (three years ago) link
I know it turned up in one of those Noirsh collections of 4 novels I was looking at in the 80s. NOt sure what with or if I read through it all.
― Stevolende, Monday, 8 February 2021 14:45 (three years ago) link
The Invention Of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
This has been on my 'to read' list for ages, but I kind of want to read some Ocampo first.
Anyway, this is pretty easily The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter for me.
― emil.y, Monday, 8 February 2021 14:45 (three years ago) link
Of the three or so I've read, The Man who Loved Children by a mile, though it's not an easy read - nor has it stuck in my mind as much as I thought or hoped it might.
― ledge, Monday, 8 February 2021 15:13 (three years ago) link
I've only read McCullers, Koestler, and Casares, but damn this looks like a strong year for novels. I voted Koestler.
― wasdnuos (abanana), Monday, 8 February 2021 15:20 (three years ago) link
The Koestler book acutely describes a particular species of political extremity that is both batshit crazy and so minutely rationalized that it looks almost sane. Each time I've read it, I was gobsmacked by it. Beyond that, I've also read the Hemingway (long ago) and Cather (recently).
But, as much as I'd have a hard time calling it a 'favorite', I will vote for Native Son. That's a book that was torn straight from the heart.
― Compromise isn't a principle, it's a method (Aimless), Monday, 8 February 2021 16:29 (three years ago) link
Adolfo Bioy Casares turns up as a character in Borges' story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", so he gets the nod over Chandler (the only other one on the list I've read) just for that.
― a good person to be on your side in a boundary dispute, otherwise not (Matt #2), Monday, 8 February 2021 16:52 (three years ago) link
Wa
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 February 2021 17:14 (three years ago) link
Wait, which Bioy? Morel? Okay, then.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 February 2021 17:15 (three years ago) link
xp I too will go for Native Son, which goes so deep into the mind of Bigger Thomas, showing you the world from his point of view without tearjerking reduction/overselling: it's eloquent and lucid without making him seem intellectual, or articulate in the outer world---helps that it's in third person, though reminds me in effect of the killer's narration in The Postman Always Rings Twice, just a bit. Fortunately, I neglected to read it 'til the restored Library of America edition came out in 1991. He was forced to make (awkward at best) changes to get it accepted by the Book Of The Month Club, which was a huge deal in 1940, and that's the only version available for the next 40 years, apparently.The only prob I had w The Heart... was mopey and misleading title (also trade pb w poster child pic of young McC.): this small town saga-cycle of character development over the years, ending (and finished) with the beginnings of World War flickering over just over the horizon (and Depression making something of a comeback as FDR starts to take deficit hawks seriously, although this is set in the Deep South, and never that well off anyway, so hey) has quite an emotional range, incl. humor, though never joeky. Can seem anecdotal, even, but it all connects and builds;Don't remember The Hamlet that well, but got me hooked on Faulkner.The Man Who Loved Children is very large, but I've got it and hope to read it; Scott Seward endorsed it several times on ilx (didn't he start ILB?)
― dow, Monday, 8 February 2021 17:29 (three years ago) link
Native Son imo.
I keep meaning to read The Man Who Loved Children
― horseshoe, Monday, 8 February 2021 17:32 (three years ago) link
Yes to the last few things typed by dow.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 February 2021 17:33 (three years ago) link
The Man Who Loved Children is the best novel ever written.
― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 February 2021 17:34 (three years ago) link
xxp "making him seem...articulate"---period, really: Wright doesn't bother with italicized thoughts etc., just describes what he sees and hears in there.
― dow, Monday, 8 February 2021 17:35 (three years ago) link
making these choices is getting more traumatic.
― dow, Monday, 8 February 2021 17:37 (three years ago) link
"only version available for the next *51* years, apparently"!
― dow, Monday, 8 February 2021 17:43 (three years ago) link
What a year! I think I'm voting for the Koestler, though I read The Strangers in the House this summer and liked it a lot.
Randall Jarrell has a great essay about The Man Who Loved Children. I couldn't make it all the way through the book as it was just too oppressively unpleasant and made me feel sick, but I have a lot of respect for it.
― I am not a psychic community (Lily Dale), Monday, 8 February 2021 17:47 (three years ago) link
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers -- unimpeachable Slan by A.E. Van Vogt -- theoretically English prose, absolutely terrible
The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich -- entertaining batshit
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler -- his other best book
Sapphira And The Slave Girl by Willa Cather -- minor Cather is still fucking awesome
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead -- utter masterpiece, still wish her editor hadn't made her de-Australianise it
Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler -- grim as fuck, brilliant, shame he was a rapist
Journey Into Fear by Eric Ambler -- another top-tier Ambler, his 30s/40s books were pretty amazing
The Naughtiest Girl In The School by Enid Blyton -- Blyton was a narc
The Power And The Glory by Graham Greene -- even though the Catholic stuff threatens to overwhelm it, still a brilliant book
Kallocain by Karin Boye -- tremendous weird SF novel of global totalitarianism, brainwashing and drugs; Huxley wishes he'd been this good
The Invention Of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares -- another tremendous SF novel, one of my favourite books
The Strangers In The House by Georges Simenon -- creepy going-to-seed man caught up in intergenerational shenanigans crime novel, really really good
The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati -- nothing much happens, but it's a brilliant book
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Monday, 8 February 2021 23:20 (three years ago) link
Great movie too.
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 8 February 2021 23:25 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
Can I mention that one of the "missed connections" in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is between a 14-year-old who wants a mature man and a middle aged man who is an ephebophile? Which, okay, nothing ever happens, but also, that is some dangerous territory.
― wasdnuos (abanana), Wednesday, 10 February 2021 00:24 (three years ago) link
There’s a bunch I have read (Hemmingway, Greene, Trease) and remember stuff all about.
The only one I’m really familiar with is Fame is the Spur and than through a 70s radio play starring Ian McKellan as ur-melt Hamer Shawcross. I should probably read the book.
― American Fear of Scampos (Ed), Wednesday, 10 February 2021 10:00 (three years ago) link
I've reada couple of Koestler's biographies of people, not sure if they were fictionalised accounts or novelised. They tied in with a history of Science module I did at University possibly to other courses too. I liked his writing.Have meant to read more.Wasn't aware of rape thing.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 10:07 (three years ago) link
McCullers. Quite like to read The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead and don't care for Casares
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 12:20 (three years ago) link
I've only read The Power and the Glory, which is probably due for a re-read since I don't remember it very well.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 16:18 (three years ago) link
Slan by A.E. Van Vogt -- theoretically English prose, absolutely terrible
Van Vogt was a strange person. He had a mechanical, almost Oulipian technique for writing. He didn't seem to understand what literature was.
I have never read the repulsive Slan and never will. But the penumbra around it is the very stuff of literature.
These lists are wonderful for including the likes of Slan with the likes of For Whom The Bell Tolls.
― alimosina, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 18:55 (three years ago) link
Yes. Where are these lists coming from again? Daniel is making them up or...?
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 10 February 2021 20:23 (three years ago) link
wikipedia has per-year pages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1940_novels
but it's not that simple
― koogs, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 20:37 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 11 February 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
All right, what joker cast the vote for Slan?
― alimosina, Thursday, 11 February 2021 00:53 (three years ago) link
Yeah, I select from the wikipedia per year pages, trying to give particular emphasis to non-US/UK stuff (which nonetheless always dominates). I also try to fit in as many curios as possible and hit a good balance between literary and genre fiction, but it's getting harder as the number of books listed per year starts to pile up and tons of hugely canonical works show up in one year.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 11 February 2021 11:14 (three years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1941
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:18 (three years ago) link