Too bad The Lost Ones (Le Dépeupleur, which was published in 1970) doesn't count, or I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. I've always found Mercier and Camier to be one of his slightest works, a rehearsal more than anything.
Anyway, it'll be another write-in for me: Anne Hébert's Kamouraska, a Québécois lit classic.
Pierre Guyotat's Éden, Éden, Éden also deserves a shout if you're into that kind of thing.
― pomenitul, Monday, 24 May 2021 13:14 (two years ago) link
i'm voting for play it as it lays, book was life-changing for me even though everyone i've recommended it to was like "why did you do that"
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 24 May 2021 13:14 (two years ago) link
I've read four: I wrote an adaptation of Mercier and Camier for a class, but it's really a 40s book; The Goalie's Anxiety is interesting, but it's surpassed by the Wim Wenders movie; the Blume book probably introduced me to the concept of menstruation; but I love the Ballard book more than anything else he's written, partly because he removed all the boring connecting bits from his other books, which I think he found as pointless to write as I did to read.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 24 May 2021 13:47 (two years ago) link
Jack’s Return Home (filmed as Get Carter)
― Brad C., Monday, 24 May 2021 14:14 (two years ago) link
I used to have the RE/Search publications edition of "Atrocity Exhibition", the illustrated large-format paperback one (roughly the size and shape of a thick, glossy magazine) with the anatomical cutaway of a naked lady on the cover, that was a staple of the book racks at independent record stores in the '90s. I think I never actually read it all the way through though. Probably the only one of these I've read in its entirety is "Mr. Sammler's Planet".
― o. nate, Monday, 24 May 2021 14:18 (two years ago) link
The Bluest Eye
― horseshoe, Monday, 24 May 2021 14:59 (two years ago) link
I wrote an adaptation of Mercier and Camier for a class, and I did some illustrations (M & C talking to the bartender etc, who looked like God x whitehaired Teddy Roosevelt, in a rudimentary way), for no reason that I can think of, but only time I ever did that for a book, so gets points for that. Also for being good in ways I can remember, incl. violence that kept me on my toes, in w the shuffle-along comic elements, and being the only one o these I've read. ut it's really a 40s book in a lot of ways, yes, but published in 1970, so qualifies in that sense too (ffs).
― dow, Monday, 24 May 2021 16:36 (two years ago) link
Have only read Moscow-Petushki (my copy was Moscow to the End of the Line), which I liked. Have a copy of The Obscene Bird of Night that I’ve been meaning to read for years.
Expecting a landslide for Bottom’s Dream.
― JoeStork, Monday, 24 May 2021 16:53 (two years ago) link
You're right, dow, but Atrocity Exhibition represents the spirit of its age more than Mercier and Camier so that helped move my vote.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 24 May 2021 16:59 (two years ago) link
Yeah, 69-70 cusp was pretty much an atrocity exhibition, but like I said, only read the one, depressingly enough---will start doing better when we get to 2012.
― dow, Monday, 24 May 2021 17:09 (two years ago) link
Bluest Eye for me, my favorite of Morrison's
― heyy nineteen, that's john belushi (the table is the table), Monday, 24 May 2021 22:33 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 26 May 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
S. L. Bhyrappa sounds like an interesting writer. He is still living.
― alimosina, Wednesday, 26 May 2021 23:57 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 27 May 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
Wow, who else voted for Fifth Business?
― Blue Yoda No. 9 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 27 May 2021 00:06 (two years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1971
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 27 May 2021 12:02 (two years ago) link