Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1943

near to the wild heart is an excellent debut but she bettered it imo

also the only book i've read on this list lol

(xxp Kuttner, Moore were also remarkable under single by-lines, esp. her, though not always clear who contributed what, uncredited, to each other's solo joints.)

As I was reading "The Glass Bead Game" I thought that I should be hating it but I thought it was great. I'll give it my vote here (though I haven't read many of these)

Glass Bead Game gets my vote, though another day it might go to Musil.

I really enjoyed Glass Bead Game but suspect I'd be cooler on it now. Not read Musil, to my shame. This will be Denton Welch for me I think.

I voted Musil, although when I was reading it several years ago I posted this:

I have been crawling and clawing my way past the 1000 page mark of The Man Without Qualities.

atm, Walter and Clarisse keep threatening to do something interesting, but can't seem to get the hang of it. Ulrich has been gabbling a lot to his sister and he seems like an awful sad sack now, whose mind shuffles along and trips itself like a person wearing shoes whose laces have been tied to each other. Everyone is impossibly high-flown and ineffectual. Makes for tough sledding to read about them.

Near To The Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector -- not her best book, but still astonishing

The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft -- hadn't thought of this as a novella, just as a story; effective Lovecraft, which sort of puts it beyond criticism as by any actual reasonable prose analysis he was a terrible writer AND YET

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain -- one of the greatest crime novels

The Lady In The Lake by Raymond Chandler -- very good but not great CHandler IMO

Laura by Vera Caspary -- the archest book I have ever read

Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles -- an excellent book, but I always love Chapter 1 more than the rest, kind of wish it had continued in that vein throughout

Maiden Voyage by Denton Welch -- wonderful, idiosyncratic writer, wonderful book

The Ministry Of Fear by Graham Greene -- another of his entertainments, and a superior one

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis - balls

The Small Back Room by Nigel Balchin -- brilliant small masterpiece of frustration, dread, sexual impotence, bomb disposal

The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil -- one of the greatest of books, gets my vote

"The Makioka Sisters by Natsume Soseki"

It's by Tanizaki, btw. I should be reading that in a week or two

Musil but v strong year - Bowles, Genet, Lispector, Cain and I'm sure Tanizaki and Laxness are v good as well

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6BI-crkwKGA/TOi5cuf2TaI/AAAAAAAAFZU/R8I1M8mIRo0/s320/Malpertuis3.jpg
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Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Double indemnity has a really weird ending that doesn't make it to the film doesn't it. Fate of one of the characters.
I just watched a bbc thing on Film Noir that covered the film but didn't mention it. Think it came from 2009 so not sure why it was being shared recently.

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

Richtig gestimmt.

yes sorry xyz, mixed up my two favourite Japanese authors!

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1944