Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1989

i don't love Bear Hunt tbh and i've certainly read it nuff times

Ripley Bogle and The Book of Evidence have also read and have time for and don't feel worth voting for

Cărtărescu, and it's not even close.

Bear Hunt is good fun to read out loud imo. Was very taken with The Book of Evidence when I first read it, Banville's writing is gorgeous but I eventually tired of his sad middle aged white male protagonist schtick. The Wench is Dead is the only Morse I've read, when it was the only thing worth reading in a holiday cottage iirc. Ishiguro it is.

I liked London Fields but Amis is fading faster with each passing year. Tours of the Black Clock is quite a thing but I feel like I need a re-read. Going on a Bear Hunt is lovely and all but I think I've read it too much if anything. If it's not Ishiguro I think I'd go for Climbers by M. John Harrison. But it's Ishiguro.

Curious as to whether Paul Theroux has had any votes at all? He's appeared quite a few times now and wondering who, if anyone, still reads him or would stan for him as a novelist? (I'd happily stan for a bunch of his travel books, fwiw.)

I don't think he's had any votes, no. Might stop listing him.

Thanks for continuing with these polls btw - they're really great (if costing me a fortune).

I read O Zone as a kid but wouldn't vote for it. Bit skeezy iirc

back to the two or three options after last year.

"Jainlight writes stories about a fantasy version of Dania, whom he is in love with, and the stories attract the attention of Adolf Hitler, known as Client Z."

er, ok, maybe i don't remember this after all... (Tours of the Black Clock)

and A Prayer For Owen Meany, remembered fondly, but never re-read. (Garp is the same)

and The Remains Of The Day just makes me think of lee and herring's version.

don't want to know what you were doing when you posted that

Thanks for continuing with these polls btw - they're really great (if costing me a fortune).

You're welcome! They're a lot of fun, and increasingly educational for myself as we move away from literary eras I'm au fait with.

I've only read Lust and Third Reich. Have read v little from these lists lately but then again looking at it there is v little I am interested in.

Apart from Nostalgia, maybe. Only one be who gets on my radar but I do resist anything that gets called magical realism these days.

Wonder how Geek Love stands up nowadays? Not sure I can be bothered to dig it out and find out.

Yeah I've also enjoyed quite a few Theroux travel books but have never been tempted to try his fiction.

I think I've only read We're Going On a Bear Hunt! I did read far too much Amis for anyone who claims to actually like literature but I'm not convinced London Fields was one of them and fuck Amis, I'm not voting for that twat even if I have read it.

Had a little scroll down wiki's '1989 in literature' page (as always, just out of interest, no critique) and I might have been tempted to throw a vote to Nick Cave's book, which would probably garner me some ilx mockery, and honestly I quite probably wouldn't like it now, but at the time I read it I was definitely impressed by the way he captured a grandly grotesque Southern Gothic style.

My first reaction to seeing that title was literally "hey, didn't Nick Cave lift that for a thing of his?", lol.

The Melancholy Of Resistance is the only Krasznahorkai I've read and I'm voting for it because it's really good. It was close though, because the Saramago's a beaut also.

I remember reading the Bolaño on the bus and desperately trying to hold it in a such a way that no one could see what I was reading.

Reading Mein Kampf and shaking my head the whole time so the people on the bus know I disagree with it

— Kafka, Esq. (@metalgearobama) December 30, 2020

I've read "Clear and Present Danger" (read this when I was much younger - not great literature, but a fast-paced thriller with extra military hardware porn), "London Fields" (I liked this and the misanthropic sarcastic perspective a lot when I read it, probably due for a re-read), and "Remains of the Day" (just finished this a few weeks ago, enjoyable). Tough to decide, since it's been so long since I've read "London Fields".

Voted Climbers which is like if you removed the gnosticism from Course of the Heart and replaced it with rock climbing

REMAINS OF THE DAY

I've only read three of these and the only one that stuck with me is the Bolano, so I'll toss my vote its way.

Keith Talent ftw

Darts, Keith.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

really getting into the blockbuster shtick authors now -- Clancy, RL Stine, Mary Higgins Clark. for people who want to read the exact same book 50 times.

people who want to read the exact same book 50 times

I think Conan Doyle inadvertently started this trend with Sherlock Holmes. Doyle wearied of it pretty fast, but Agatha Christie saw the size of the audience and grabbed for it unashamedly.

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

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1990