Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1963

I'm voting for my absolute favourite Mishima in the end but The Bell Jar is basically perfect and should be acknowledged as such

“The Ice Palace”, I love that novel so much, couldn’t vote for any of the other amazing things on this list.

I will warn you that we're getting very close to the point where I will expect you to include every single BS Johnson and Ann Quin novel so I can vote for them and shout about it.
― emil.y

Sorry! Would have included it if it had been on the wikipedia list of 1963 novels. If you check whether the following works are categorized in their specific wiki years and, if not, add them they'll be in for sure! :D

Please don’t omit the English self-translation of Beckett’s final novel since the French original wasn’t part of the 1961 poll.

Don't worry, I remember your distress.

Praise be!

Thanks Daniel - don't mean to be picky as running these polls is probably a fair amount of work, especially now we're in years where the number of novels published is way too many to fit the options limit.

Do you just go by Category:1964 novels? Those types of pages seem to differ a fair bit from 1964 (or x year) in literature pages, and then you have different stuff again in the sub-categories like Category:1964 (or x year) in British (or x nationality) novels. I'm happy to give you a list of Quin and Johnson books and their years if that works for you and isn't a hassle? I can email you or just post them up here in a bit.

I go by the Category: year novels lists, which have sub-sections for debut novels and novels of different countries.

Will include the Quin and Johnson novels if you list them yeah!

I'm just going to go on the dates from their individual wikis, usually I'd double-check accuracy but I'm far too tired rn.

B.S. Johnson:

Albert Angelo (1964)
Trawl (1966)
The Unfortunates (1969)
House Mother Normal (1971)
Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry (1973)
See the Old Lady Decently (1975)

Ann Quin:

Berg (1964)
Three (1966)
Passages (1969)
Tripticks (1972)

Berg vs Albert Angelo, Three vs Trawl and Passages vs The Unfortunates are huuuuuge tussles for me, though I already know which way I'd vote on all three matches (I'll save that for those polls, though - no spoilers).

Thank you so much for taking me into consideration, you're a champ.

The Bell Jar

i enjoy The Group and The Ice Palace and suspect i would also enjoy The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Bell Jar is seared into my consciousness from the first time i read it as a teenager. i reread it a few years ago, and it totally held up.

As usual, several I know only via screen versions, and some I don't remember well enough to vote for, so it's V: for me, peak Pynchon so far---having gotten off the bus, at least temporarily, after Gravity's Rainbow, some of which I greatly enjoyed, but too much got toward inflated density of prose and his post hipster-Lef-Calvinist fatalism seemed like overcooked beefs this time--- while in V, the deadpan humor of yo-yoing Whole Sick Crew x more driven characters and their intrigue kept me balanced enough to get through the subways and bedrooms and alligator sewers and deserts and what not----a minority opinion for sure, but there it is (influenced by being in high school and wanting to sign up with his people)

I meant "Left," of course, but might as well be Lef (Behin)

This is really tough. Plath feels slight and Cortazar is an experiment I don't much care for, otherwise I'll stan for everything else I've read

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Grifters by Jim Thompson
The Experience Of Pain by Carlo Emilio Gadda
Family Sayings by Natalia Ginzburg
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazár
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

I'll go for Ice Palace, just over The Wall.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

This feels like a big year. I went with Vonnegut narrowly over LeCarre.

I read the Bell Jar a couple of years ago, I thought it was (amongst other things obv) an indictment of the male medical establishment - leaping to prescribe ect for depression, turning childbirth into a terrifying ordeal. (Hope I'm not speaking out of turn as a man.)

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

Is this our first tie? Pynchon and Vonnegut,no less: thee Sick Sixties are rolling, Bob! Tough year indeed.

1961 was a tie. Think I forgot to vote for the bell jar here.

Tons of ties in the early 20th century, mostly because attendance was such that often enough the winner(s) would have two votes.

Thought it weird that Pynchon went underdiscussed itt, always thought of him as an ILB fave.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1964

I ended up voting for V. Cat's Cradle is one of the Vonneguts I haven't read, and I felt like my other options I read too far back in the past, though I was definitely close to putting my vote in for The Bell Jar. Of the ones I have read more recently, well, I had high expectations for Hopscotch, but... let's just say they were not met.