Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1983

Jean Echenoz's Cherokee but since that's not an option, I'll go with Christa Wolf.

Cassandra by Christa Wolf
The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
I Served The King Of England by Bohumil Hrabal
Life & Times Of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee
The Loser by Thomas Bernhard

This is hard. They are all really strong. I have voted for Hrabal before, possibly Bernhard novel and in any case we have Old Masters to come.

Piano Teacher is Jelinek's best that is available in English. Cassandra is terrific and this period of Coetzee is really good...might go for Cassandra as Wolf is the most neglected of the three xp

Mists Of Avalon enormously important to kid Daniel - another suggestion from my dad, as I was in a major Arthurian phase at the time. I was also reading Mallory and re-enacting all the battles and tournaments on the floor with little paper shields that I would draw to represent various knights. Every time someone opened a door they'd go flying. Marion Zimmer Bradley one of the most well documented authors on wikipedia, btw, her stuff has been showing up for ages. But I'm guessing certain revelations make it so that she won't be up for revisiting anytime soon, I certainly wouldn't want to.

Read The Little Drummer Girl in anticipation of watching the Park Chan-wook TV series, because I try to always check whatever that guy's up to out. Found it quite a slog, am not convinced Le Carré knows what he's talking about regarding the psychology of young fanatics as much as he does when he's talking about the psychology of soulless boureaucrats, be they English, German or Russian. Also agents being psychologically and physically abused in the name of The Cause is a major theme in his work - it's right there in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - but it felt a bit more gratuitous in this one? I didn't end up even watching the tv show, more fool me.

Colour Of Magic is fine, but not worth voting for.

Have a copy of I Served The King Of England knocking about, suspect that'd be it if I had read it.

I can't justify giving any author two selections at this stage, so sorry Stephen King fans who prefer Christine over Pet Sematary (honestly don't know him well enough to know which one's more rated).

Just to show how parochial my tastes can be, a write-in vote for David Nobbs' Second From Last In The Sack Race, a comic novel which has a spectacular level of detail and thought put into it.

...though actually voting for the Hrabal.

Poor showing from me, The Colour of Magic and maybe The Witches. Though I have seen the original and terrifying TV version of The Woman in Black, and the stage show, and the Daniel Radcliffe film.

I've only read "Ironweed" of these, and I think, "The Witches". "Modern Baptists" as been on my want-list for some time.

itt ppl unsure whether they've read the witches

I must've read it. I remember the outlines of the plot, and I don't think I've seen the whole movie.

Mudrooroo = the original Rachel Dolezal, apparently.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I really enjoyed Mists of Avalon in the early 00ies when i came across it, pretty sure in the University library. THink I read a couple of sequels too. I know that I haven't read the prequel thing though i have been aware of it for years.

Don't think I'd realised that Little Drummer Girl was so late. Was just thinking about the later tv series earlier since Florence PUgh's in it. Had thought the earlier tv series was earlier than this. Or is it set in like 1978?

Terry Pratchett is quite fun.

Surprised myself by voting for Waterland. I had no idea it was as early as 1983 - feels like a classic 90s novel in lots of ways.

I still can't believe how much they changed the plot for the Costner film.

I just heard about Mudroroo recently. unless I've forgotten earlier.
BUt I was looking for indigenous Australian writing from a non-European/white perspective at a conference webinar recently and somebody suggested his book. So I wondered if it was any good on hearing this factor. I'm not familiar with the book so it is possible it has some worth even if he isn't indigenous, not as much as if he was

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

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1984

I think I ended up not casting a vote in this one. I've read The Witches, Shame, and Pet Semetary and didn't really feel like boosting any of them. Bloody loved the stage version of The Woman in Black (and think the Radcliffe version is okay too tbh). Would be interested in reading more Hrabal, as Too Loud a Solitude is my only one so far.