Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1957

Maybe Agee was more of an on-track Kerouac---it's hard to say how smart and talented Jack really was; so much has been published since his death, not to mention alll those previous books, that I can't really evaluate him, but was especially struck by some early, elegiac, elegant, no BS diary passages in The New Yorker however many years ago it was, from long before he seemed to be writing for an audience, although in OTR he still seemed to e thinking out loud, talking to a single visitor.

(Diary passages among the posthumous publications, that is.)

Going from this to the just-revived Roky Erickson thread, was struck by all of thee lyrics these are from, while flashing back to the OTR reading experience:

Twice born gypsies care and keep
The nowhere of their former home
They slip inside this house as they pass by.
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
You think you can't, you wish you could
I know you can, I wish you would
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
Four and twenty birds of Maya
Baked into an atom you
Polarized into existence
Magnet heart from red to blue
To such extent the realm of dark
Within the picture it seems true
But slip inside this house and then decide.
The center of this house will never die.
There is no season when you are grown
You are always risen from the seeds you've sown
There is no reason to rise alone
Other stories given have sages of their own.
Draw from the well of unchanging
hree-eyed men are not complaining.
They can yo-yo where they will
They slip inside this house as they pass by.
Don't pass it by.

Spark hit her stride in The Comforters and started off on a long series of delightful, acerbic, masterly novels. It's my favorite on this list.

What did she publish before The Comforters?

From wikipedia: "Spark began writing seriously, under her married name, after World War II, beginning with poetry and literary criticism. In 1947 she became editor of the Poetry Review."

The Comforters was her first novel. iirc, she got some assistance in finding a publisher for it from Graham Greene.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Lol I love Baron in the Trees and was specifically waiting for it to show up so I could vote for it! no accounting for taste I guess

― Mark E. Smith died this year. Or, maybe last year. (bernard snowy)

yup, this. next contender would be On The Road but the Calvino is perfect.

in fact I would argue that the Calvino novel is a prescient vision of ecodefense:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Butterfly_Hill

I feel I should put in a good word for Pnin before the poll closes. Lolita & Pale Fire tend to get most of the attention, but having re-read Pnin recently (after Galya Dinant's great Pniniad) it really is wonderful, maybe Nabokov's most touching. I just have to remember poor Pnin's "I haf nofing left, nofing, nofing", or him booting the football away when he thinks his son wouldn't want the gift, or that shocking scene remembering his dead fiancé just when he's in a state of well-being - and it gets to me.

And how about this - just the other day I was trying to remember where it was from, but of course it could only be Nabokov. After Pnin has been disappointed in meeting his ex-wife to find she only wants a little money:

'Incidentally,' she said ... 'you know, Timofey, this brown suit of yours is a mistake: a gentleman does not wear brown'.

He saw her off, and walked back through the park. To hold her, to keep her - just as she was - with her cruelty, with her vulgarity, with her blinding blue eyes ... All of a sudden he thought: If people are reunited in Heaven (I don't believe it, but suppose), then how shall I stop it from creeping upon me, over me, that shriveled, helpless, lame thing, her soul?

He seemed to be quite unexpectedly (for human despair seldom leads to great truths) on the verge of a simple solution ... but was interrupted by an urgent request. A squirrel ... the intelligent animal had climbed up to the brim of a drinking fountain and, as Pnin approached, thrust its oval face ... Pnin understood ... eyeing him with contempt, the thirsty rodent ... went on drinking for a considerable time. 'She has fever, perhaps,' thought Pnin, weeping quietly and freely and all the time politely pressing the contraption.

I should vote for the Calvino, could go for Angel, though it's second-tier Elizabeth Taylor, but I'm feeling sentimental so will chuck a vote to On the Road.

Pnin quote is amazing, thanks!

There were some other contenders but ultimately Pnin got my vote.

I don’t wanna be a Pniniad no more.

Have hardly read anything on this list, not even On the Road. The Glass Bees looked fascinating based on the description and seemed to always be on the verge of becoming interesting but bored me throughout. Would write in Moominland Midwinter.

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

The only ones I've read are "On the Road" and "The Fish Can Sing". I still have fond memories of reading "On the Road" though it seems to be a bit out of fashion these days.

I would have voted for Moominland Midwinter, shoutout to JoeStork there

good top four

slightly surprised the wyndham got nothing.

The moomins omission is 100% wikipedia's fault - if it had been on their list you better believe I'd have included it and voted for it too.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1958

Maybe I should have voted for The Glass Bees instead of Pnin to mix it up. But I couldn't, not really.