xp "Up to the early 80s" means only his first two novels! I'll rep for most of them up to and including 'Atonement' but yep 'Saturday' is a precipitous drop. 'The Cement Garden' has strong first novel vibes. I've also read 'The Stand', 'The Sea, The Sea' and 'Life: A Users Manual', out of those the last is the clear winner.
― In the wastelands of Birmingham and Manchester, massages are back (ledge), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 15:30 (two years ago) link
I also like the short story collections, so you could call it 5 books, which is more than many! Atonement was a good film.
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 15:36 (two years ago) link
Voting The World According to Garpbecause it expands beyond the limits of novelist Garp himself (crucially, it's third-person narrative). Maybe too anecdotal, but good yarns, recurring subplot lines. This was the book that got everybody in Collegetown (and even some parents in Hometown!)reading fiction just for pleasure again. Of course, there wasn't much on cable yet, no video stores had showed up hereabouts, but still.
― dow, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:11 (two years ago) link
I loved Garp when I was 17, wrote my big A-level English Literature essay on it, scared to revisit it though.
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:18 (two years ago) link
I read Garp in pretty much one hit in a bedroom in Helsinki and am glad to leave it in there in its perfect form. Despite my username I'm notified remotely interested in Bukowski any more. And The Stand I did re-read a couple of years back and it goes on and on (not today mention the 'magical' black and disabled characters). I have a similar relationship with McEwan to most here. Enduring Love would be my departure point I think.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:50 (two years ago) link
I read "Garp" way back when it was the omnipresent Irving on people's bookshelves. Later in the '90s it was supplanted by "A Prayer for Owen Meany" (which I never read).
― o. nate, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 16:55 (two years ago) link
I read The Cement Garden in preparation for seeing the movie, and found the book told the story so well I had no interest in seeing the movie afterwards.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 17:16 (two years ago) link
Write-in vote for "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" by William Kennedy.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 17:50 (two years ago) link
I should have read that. Did read several other Kennedys in the 80s, when he was in bloom. May well vote for Ironweed when we get to '83. Has some of the same characters as BPGC. O Albany, in the early 20th Century.
― dow, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 20:56 (two years ago) link
The film of The Cement Garden is as good as the book, captures its atmosphere really well.
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 21:03 (two years ago) link
I didn't expect to be disappointed by the film, I just thought the book was visual and tactile enough that I wouldn't get any more out of seeing it.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 21:05 (two years ago) link
xxp Actually WK was in bloom way before that, but there were all of these reprints and new books in rapid succession, seemed liked (I belonged to QPBC, Quality Paperback Book Club). Esp. when the screen adaptation (which he wrote) of Ironweed came out, with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep (Kael panned it, I think, but I liked it, thought it conveyed the somber, seamyy. sometimes desperate, vitality-mortality and momentum of the novel pretty well).
― dow, Tuesday, 22 June 2021 21:07 (two years ago) link
xp you should check out First Love, Last Rites, very similar in feel and I don't think he's ever written anything better.
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 21:10 (two years ago) link
It is also kind of horrifying though
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 22 June 2021 21:11 (two years ago) link
Wait, is this the year Tim was excited about? Where's the football stickers annual?
― emil.y, Wednesday, 23 June 2021 16:22 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 24 June 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
Life a user’s manual is great if you like an unaccountably large number of references to octagons
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Thursday, 24 June 2021 00:43 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 25 June 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
"Wait, is this the year Tim was excited about?"
Indeed it was.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 25 June 2021 07:34 (two years ago) link
I missed The Bookshop, that's a good one.
― In the wastelands of Birmingham and Manchester, massages are back (ledge), Friday, 25 June 2021 07:35 (two years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1979
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 25 June 2021 13:57 (two years ago) link
― Rich Valley Girl, Poor Valley Girl (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 June 2021 21:18 (two years ago) link
I was the other vote for it. :)
― What's It All About, Althea? (Aimless), Saturday, 26 June 2021 21:33 (two years ago) link
I had to dip out of these threads for a bunch of IRL reasons but yes this was the one I was waiting for and yes thanks everyone for voting for the correct number 1.
― Tim, Friday, 30 July 2021 12:29 (two years ago) link
Glad to have been of service.
― emil.y, Friday, 30 July 2021 12:44 (two years ago) link