Books you've read recently and would unreservedly recommend

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OldRottenhat

Active member
owen said:
not wanting to be mean, but the word 'booker' tends to make my heart sink- apart from james kelman i can't think of anyone not offensively north london to have ever won the thing (and margaret attwood, i guess- recently read the handmaid's tale after getting it 2nd hand for aboput tuppence, and was surprisingly impressed, way better than the respected lit figure does sci-fi tag would imply- alternate histories always a bit of a fixation of mine)- it does always evoke reams and reams of leaden, smug bildungsroman
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I assume that you're using the phrase "offensively north London" metaphorically since the last ten winners include two Canadians, two Australians and one apiece from South Africa, India and Ireland. If you're implying that there's a certain circumscribed notion of "literary" fiction that's common to most Booker nominees, I would agree - formal innovation isn't much valued as a virtue by the Booker panel. I doubt you're the only one reading this forum who finds the prospect of Booker fiction less than inspiring - I read A Long Long Way as much because the author is Irish as because it was nominated - but I won't discount a book because it was nominated either.
 
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Tweak Head

Well-known member
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon - one of my favourite books ever, if not the favourite. Funny, moving, political and beautifully structured. Lost count of how many times I've read it. It's also more accessible than some of his other stuff, so if you want to read some Pynchon but couldn't get past the first 100 pages of Gravity's Rainbow try this one ...

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. First read this years ago and re-read it recently. The atmosphere she creates is amazing.

Currently re-reading The Waterworks by EL Doctorow. Another book that creates a special atmosphere.
 
B

borderpolice

Well-known member
qwerty south said:
'Fuzz One: A Bronx Childhood' by Vincent Fedorchak - incredible story of NY graffiti's early days
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that's a fascinating book for an old graffity head like myself. The book's
language is interesting. Fuzz makes Tim Westwood sound plain. i wonder
if the book was ghostwritten to give that effect? or was that the lingo of
the bronx circa 1973?

and i love the old reprinted paint colour chips at the end.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"If it measures up to "Blood Meridian" it will be a classic."
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I didn't know anything about this book but this was the second time in a short period that I heard someone say good things about it so I decided to get it yesterday. So far so good (and nasty).
 
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vernoncrane

garrett dweller
the Horned Man by James Ladsun is a great book and both The Erl King and Gemini by Michele Tournier had me gnashing my teeth in envy on every page.. remarkable books both and as opportunity arises i intend to read all his stuff...currently attempting Crime and Punishment for the fiftieth time and finding it a slog...is it the translation?
 
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D84

Well-known member
I haven't read a novel in ages - or at least one that I really enjoyed and felt that I had to share it with people - and yesterday I finished in a second sitting Ursula le Guin's The Dispossessed

What can I say? This is possibly one of the most elegantly written, patiently developed novels I've ever read. It's chock full of philosophy and life observation etc.

And it's really politically sharp (imo) - there's heaps of satirical descriptions of our capitalist system etc. It's great to read something that describes an alternative to our present political disaster that isn't depressing etc. There's a strong feminist critique of power structures, social dominance patterns/impulses.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I'm reading Women in Love at the moment and would just like to point out that D.H.Lawrence is bonkers. You should read this stuff!!
 
J

jd_

Well-known member
D84 said:
I haven't read a novel in ages - or at least one that I really enjoyed and felt that I had to share it with people - and yesterday I finished in a second sitting Ursula le Guin's The Dispossessed

What can I say? This is possibly one of the most elegantly written, patiently developed novels I've ever read. It's chock full of philosophy and life observation etc.

And it's really politically sharp (imo) - there's heaps of satirical descriptions of our capitalist system etc. It's great to read something that describes an alternative to our present political disaster that isn't depressing etc. There's a strong feminist critique of power structures, social dominance patterns/impulses.
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Glad to hear this is good. I bought it in a used store the other day but haven't read it yet.
 
benjybars

benjybars

village elder.
Murukami - Kafka on the Shore...

Briliant. Any book that has Colonel Sanders as a Japanese pimp deserves to be read. :)
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
read the last two books mentioned - Barnes is on form I feel. I like the way the sheer oddness of Conan Doyle is slowly revealed. The section after the trial is really rather moving and quite sad. Also Barnes does well on ideas of Englishness - both Arthur and George perceive themselves as English but in many ways they don't fit in.

Quite nice to see Barnes put tricksiness in its place and put the story to the forefront - however i'm still a big fan of the short stort collection - Cross Channel and his non-fiction on french writing is pretty much there - if nothing else i'm grateful for him turning me on to Flaubert - a life long obsession.

as for Kafka on the shore, as i think i said a while ago - murakami is deceptive, he seduces you with the pleasures of text, he is very aware of the appeal of detective and thriller genres and then he throws in a metaphysical twist. but i often feel that at the end we are left with something insubstantial, that it doesn't live up to the promises.

what did you make of the bizarre 'dream' rape scene of his 'sister' ? :confused:

very readable both
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"as for Kafka on the shore, as i think i said a while ago - murakami is deceptive, he seduces you with the pleasures of text, he is very aware of the appeal of detective and thriller genres and then he throws in a metaphysical twist. but i often feel that at the end we are left with something insubstantial, that it doesn't live up to the promises."
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I think that you're spot on here, certainly in this book and The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. I did very much enjoy reading them though so I can't complain too much. The one called (I think) "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" seemed to add up to a lot more than those two just mentioned and Norwegian Wood is different again. He's obviously got something though because I keep reading them.

"what did you make of the bizarre 'dream' rape scene of his 'sister' ?"
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What do you mean here? There is always some "kinky" sex in his novels isn't there (normally featuring a naive boy and a more experienced girl who leads the way)? I just think it was one of those weird things that he put in as mentioned above.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
I suppose I found the rape taking place inside a dream (which has been purported to be a 'real' {or at the very least an alternative} plane of existence) of someone who he identifies as his lost sister more than a touch problematic (in fact he allows this to be unresloved, thus getting the hero off the hook).

yeah but i generally agree - niave boy/ experienced woman is a standard Murakami trope
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"i presume most of you london heads have read fowler's end by gerald kersh"
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I must admit that I've never heard of it but I might try and check it out. I've read a few recommendations from this thread now and enjoyed them all.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
IdleRich said:
I must admit that I've never heard of it but I might try and check it out. I've read a few recommendations from this thread now and enjoyed them all.
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very good book

in fact Harvill published a series of 'forgotten' London books at the same time:
Maureen Duffy - Capital
Kersh - Fowler's End
Henry Green - Caught, about him being a fireman during the second world war, really very good indeed
Alexander Baron - Lowlife

there might have been more
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I know nothing about any of this, maybe I should check it out when I get the chance. Whenever that will be.
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
The only book I've read recently that I thought was really good was Jonathan Safran Foer's 'Everything is Illuminated'. Mainly, I was impressed with how exceptionally entertaining it was, while being at least slightly unusual form-wise.

The chapters written from the perspective of a young Ukrainian guy with a terrible grasp of English resonated nicely with me, having just started English teaching here.

It's a bit, um, "magic realism", or whatever. Parts reminded me of someone like Rushdie, which I can't see as a good thing.

About Murakami - sometimes I think the feeling that it's all a bit slight just comes from quite shit endings? I've read 4 of his books and am interested in reading more, but immediately after finishing each one I feel a bit deflated. Such good fun to read, though.
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
michael said:
The only book I've read recently that I thought was really good was Jonathan Safran Foer's 'Everything is Illuminated'. Mainly, I was impressed with how exceptionally entertaining it was, while being at least slightly unusual form-wise.
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I should add that immediately prior to this I was reading a whole bunch of free genre fiction that got handed to me from various other foreigners in Tokyo, so maybe part of my excitement was just the contrast with the style of people like Michael Crichton. :eek:

hedging, hedging...
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"It's a bit, um, "magic realism", or whatever. Parts reminded me of someone like Rushdie, which I can't see as a good thing."
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Well, the only Rushdie I've read is Midnight's Children but I thought it was great.
"About Murakami - sometimes I think the feeling that it's all a bit slight just comes from quite shit endings?"
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I agree but I think that the ending can be very important. Often when reading a book that you get totally sucked in to you start thinking "how is he going to bring all of this together?" and it's always a bit disappointing when the answer is - he doesn't. One book in particular I remember thinking that about is Cities of the Red Night by WS Burroughs. Unlike most of his other books it has a (kind of) coherent story at first which gets you desperate to know how it ends and then it suddenly goes all Naked Lunch. Which is still cool and everything but to me it would have been better if he could have finished off the narrative. I guess a lot of people would disagree with me on that though.
 
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