Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1951

Yeah, I think those are the only two. He also wrote the best film review ever:
https://i.ibb.co/GJ73ph0/DJ-gd90-VYAII4n-S.jpg

bless you for these posts, horseshoe; i always feel so alone when the cool twitter kids start trying to outdo each other in their disdain for catcher.

He would have killed it on letterboxd.

xp

Day of the Triffids is class. Probably my choice too.

I also appreciated Catcher In The Rye and horseshoe’s posts about it and instinctively bridle at people who try to kid on that it’s shit, I read it at exactly the right age but there’s still a lot to love there even thinking it back years later. The title scene is one that sticks with me in detail almost two decades later.

Day of the triffids was such a gripping read as a teenager so it’s probably that but I have to put in a mention for the cruel sea which was my grandfather’s favourite book and movie (he was in the merchant navy on North Atlantic convoys). I should read it again.

haha we are not alone! Twitter posts deriding Catcher (and other books) always piss me off.

I'm voting Catcher. I reread all the Salinger stories over Christmas - so good. A Backlisted episode from a few months ago helped me rethink Catcher when they framed Holden as a young man having a nervous breakdown rather than a cool teenage rebel. I really liked Franny & Zooey and RHtRB,C + Seymour too.

thanks horseshoe, lots of stuff I've been thinking but pur much better than I could. Also just rewatched the film Six Degrees of Separation and there is a speech defending Catcher in there, love that film too.

My ranking of Narnia books is H&HB>VOTDT>MN>>SC>>>LW&W>>>PC>>>LB - haven't read any since childhood and wondering if my kids would like them.

I always thought "Prince Caspian" was one of the weaker Narnia books. Though, strangely, it seems to be the best of the recent big-budget, film versions. Let me see, I've read a few of these. Most recently I re-read "Malone Dies", after taking a crack at re-reading "Molloy" but finding I was not in the mood for some of the more tedious slapstick business. It was okay. I think "Foundation" may be Asimov's best novel, at least of the ones I've read. I also read "Catcher in the Rye" perhaps a bit too late in life, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I read Styron's "Lie Down in Darkness" a few years ago. It was also okay. I don't remember much about it. Actually not sure which one I'd vote for.

The main thing I remember about Foundation is that it's a novel set in the future that has zero women in it, even in minor roles. Even as a kid I found that weird.

"what was that you said about not getting to vote for Durrenmatt again, xyzz?"

what I meant was that The Judge is probably the best of his novellas and I probably wouldn't vote for anything else.

This is what I have read:

Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett
Molloy by Samuel Beckett
Forbbiden Colours by Yukio Mishima
The Conformist by Alberto Moravia
The Master Of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
Memoirs Of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

I want to go for one of the Becketts but I will get to vote for one of the later ones (I love Mercier and Camier a lot), so its between Yourcenar and Moravia and I am going for Hadrian, its a very good historical recreation.

I will read Catcher in the Rye one day, if only to satisfy my curiosity.

(I love Mercier and Camier a lot),amen

We should've probably included it in the 1946 poll but I suppose it's too late now.

It was published in the 70s so was thinking it could be included then

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

I didn’t vote for The End of the Affair despite what I said about it itt but I’m pleased two of you did.

Of the zero votes, Forbidden Colours is a very well-written novel where it's hard to tell to what extent it is an exploration of a misogynist and/or by a misogynist.
Malone Dies is not much weaker than Molloy but I guess it suffers from middle-of-the-trilogy neglect, like Three Colours: White.

Right, I thought that was late for L Frank Baum if he had started in teh previous century. So good to hear I had my timeline about right if he died in 191.
THought that was odd. THough of course there are always unpublished works released way posthumously.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1952

foundation has a neat idea but it's horribly written and doesn't even do justice to the idea