Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1966

Oh yeah, that's one I was thinking of. And I don't even mind his very Folkie duets w Mimi.
I wish for a collection of Pynchon's guest prefaces, reviews, liner notes (for Spiked! The Music of Spike Jones for inst), but I guess a lot if not all of it's online somewhere, though at least some might be behind the New York Times paywall.

Bruce Langhorne said some nice things about him, I thinkg.

It seems like it some point he was some kind of callow, manipulative BS artist- he was friends with Dylan!- but later on maybe he acquired some more depth- he married Mimi!

Yeah---I also enjoyed David Hajdu's Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña(with substantial faxed input from Pynchon). He tried to be the Svengali for his first wife, Carolyn Hester, but it didn't go that well--for one thing, she wasn't up to his standards as a solo artist---but duets with Mimi were more satisfactory. (Marcus and xgau freaked out over what they took to be too much credit given to RF's early influence on Dylan, but seemed to me like he just encouraged D. to write more, and maybe turned him on to better weed).

freaked out over what they took to be too much credit given *by Hajdu*, that is.

I forgot he we married to Carolyn Hester. He's like his namesake, Richard Meyers, in his way with the ladies, I guess.

Sorry for extra RONG commas!

extra, RONG

Heh, classic exchange between the two of us in every way.

Richard HELL Myers, I take it you mean? What a colorful guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Fari%C3%B1a Correction: it wasn't a wedding---

On April 30, 1966, two days after the publication of his novel, Fariña attended a book-signing ceremony at a Carmel Valley Village bookstore, the Thunderbird. Later that day, while at a party to celebrate his wife Mimi Fariña's twenty-first birthday, Fariña saw a guest with a motorcycle, who later gave Fariña a ride up Carmel Valley Road, heading east toward the rural Cachagua area of Carmel Valley.

At an S-turn the driver lost control. The motorcycle tipped over on the right side of the road, came back to the other side, and tore through a barbed wire fence into a field where a small vineyard now exists. The driver survived, but Fariña was killed instantly. According to Pynchon's preface to Been Down..., the police said the motorcycle must have been traveling at 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), even though "a prudent speed" would have been 30 miles per hour (48 km/h).

Fariña is buried in a simple grave, its marker emblazoned with a peace sign, at Monterey City Cemetery in Monterey, California.[12]

Yes, I almost got even cuter by referring to him as Richie Meyers, but even I have some vestigial standards.

Commas, how do they work?

Forgot that Gravity's Rainbow is dedicated to him. He did more than I knew:http://www.richardandmimi.com/
http://www.richardandmimi.com/vanguardtribute.jpg

Yeah, commas are a pain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qJwKgYIjRE

I think the only two I've read are "Crying of Lot 49" and "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me". I think that I read "Flowers for Algernon" at some point, but probably the short story version. I have fond memories of reading COL49, but BDSLILLUTM was kind of a disappointment. No doubt I picked it up because of the Pynchon intro. Both share an appreciation for the culture of elaborate pranks that is the purest efflorescence of a certain nerdy subculture that flourishes in tightly regimented environments, e.g. the military.

lot 49 is my least fave of the pynchon i've read, it's really good but loses a little of its magic by the end imo

This may be the hardest one yet for me. I’ve read a bunch and no clear favorites. Although...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted for the one I read more than once

That's supposed to be Three, not Berg.

― Daniel_Rf

Well.

I was hoping to be more excitable and campaign-y and in-depth for these ones where some of my favourite books of all time are appearing, but bad life stuff is happening and I just don't have the energy. The main thrust of what I was going to say about this year's AQ/BSJ match-up goes something like:

- Trawl is honestly lesser Johnson and wouldn't stand much of a chance against any Quin book...
- ...but particularly not against Three, which imo is her best and everyone should read this book.

i voted for in cold blood lol

Torn between Season of Migration and Lot 49, but The Laughing Policeman and The Comedians are excellent too (big lols in each obv).

The Laughing Policeman is great, but that's one where I wish I could vote for the series rather than the individual book.

Voted Crying of Lot 49. I don't think I've read it since I was a kid, but it's part of my mental landscape; little fragments of it, like "potsmaster" and "Hey, solid citizen, we just pinched your boat," float into my mind all the time.

Lot 49 is diverting but extremely minor compared to what came later imo

Gravity's Rainbow is dedicated to Fariña

Oh wait it's been said

I have irrationally disliked Richard Farina ever since reading David Hajdu's book Positively 4th Street; Hajdu seemed so determined to elevate Farina as a misunderstood genius and downplay Dylan's talent that it made me instinctively (and quite unfairly) resent Farina when my actual beef was with Hajdu.

The Comedians is good too; I didn't see it on the list until now. This was a good year.

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

A bunch of stuff wuz robbed.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1967

I was somewhat sheepish about voting for Flowers for Algernon, but I reread it relatively recently and it was well worth the revisit. Glad that one of my other choices, Babel-17, got a vote, somewhat dismayed the The Laughing Policeman got shut out.