sometimes i wonder if i'm unfair to David Mitchell because he shares his name with a cunt but then i remember i've read some of his work and no i'm not being unfair
― look on my guacs, ye mighty, and dis pear (Noodle Vague), Friday, 15 October 2021 11:58 (two years ago) link
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen -- professor banging his student in the first chapter
i think i liked this book okay, but all i can really remember about it is that the student’s name was that of my former sister-in-law
― mookieproof, Friday, 15 October 2021 12:39 (two years ago) link
austerlitz is gonna run away with this. i made my contribution
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 15 October 2021 13:40 (two years ago) link
I'm back on zero for this year. Atonement was definitely after I'd stopped reading McEwans, and I was mostly out of the self-important middle-brow man hole at this point.
At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill - this I remember as being a right fucking pain in my life. It was the cause of several conversations where someone mentioned it and I was all "oh, you mean At Swim, Two Birds?", get nothing but a blank look or maybe some mockery, and then be so unconfident in my own brain that I would think I invented a book that didn't exist. Accidental gaslighting, thanks everyone.
Also, anyone read the Robbe-Grillet from this year? I hadn't realised he was still working at this point.
― emil.y, Friday, 15 October 2021 13:47 (two years ago) link
Another year, another David Mitchell novel I own but haven't got round to reading. Other than that I got nothing.
― let the gaslighting begin (Matt #2), Friday, 15 October 2021 14:13 (two years ago) link
I have read number9dream but have zero recollection. I apparently have more time for McEwan than most people here, iirc (possibly not) Atonement is a pretty great last flourish of talent before he went completely to pot. Might vote for Le Guin though, not the best book of the series but a fine and transformative culmination.
― ledge, Friday, 15 October 2021 14:47 (two years ago) link
I may have said it better on whichever What Are You Reading?, but here's how I put it on The Sebald Fiction Poll
The only one I've read (so far!) is Austerlitz, the edition with James Wood's handy intro (he's also got a couple of Sebald commentaries on lrb and newyorker). Looking at the takes on other books here, I suspect Sebald's even more self-aware here, deliberately putting (most of) his own persona/voice in the narrator's occasional encounters with the long and winding, musically associative, gradually and compulsively accruing momentum of Austerlitz the outsider pilgrim---results: beautiful (go A. go). What a swan song.
― dow, Monday, October 11, 2021 6:31 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink
Putting most of it in the narrative-within-the narrative, I mean, as in Heart of Darkness.
― dow, Monday, October 11, 2021
― dow, Friday, 15 October 2021 16:00 (two years ago) link
I’ve read 0 of these.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 15 October 2021 16:25 (two years ago) link
also, shit me at American Gods being 20 years old
― koogs, Friday, 15 October 2021 17:04 (two years ago) link
Voting Austerlitz, but the only other one I've read is American Gods, which I didn't like.
― jmm, Friday, 15 October 2021 17:10 (two years ago) link
austerlitz without a second thought, though i've only read one other of these ("the corrections," i remember it being very sanctimonious?). spinning so much beauty out of trauma is unreal.
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Friday, 15 October 2021 17:13 (two years ago) link
the problem with "the great american novel" is that america as a subject blows imo
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Friday, 15 October 2021 17:14 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 18 October 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
I've been in a book club for 20+ years. We read and then discuss about 6-8 books a year, all fiction.
I remember At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill as one of my favorites
― Dan S, Monday, 18 October 2021 22:34 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 2002
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 10:25 (two years ago) link
s/o to the other Cercas voter
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 10:42 (two years ago) link
I think I forgot to vote in this but would've voted "Austerlitz" as well. The only other one I've read is "Atonement" which was pretty good, but not good enough to compete with the melancholy, mysterious mood of the Sebald.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 15:34 (two years ago) link
i shuffled between austerlitz and cercas and ended up voting for the latter (s/o to you too Daniel_Rf). Soldiers of Salamis was a great read, made even more enjoyable by Bolano's cameo, as i read this right after finishing the savage detectives
― Jibe, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 09:31 (two years ago) link