IdleRich
IdleRich
In the thread about Roth there was a mention of how the novel has lost its way... someone said that they have the impression that there are loads of academic books which are almost in-jokes, filled with literary references and hard for anyone to follow that isn't part of a very specific dialogue. So, I'm interested here in books which are kind of experimental in form or content or both - and yet which are possible to read for yer man on the street and which add up to more than a dry academic game. Enjoyable, have a good story, even pack an emotional punch. And really I mean new-ish books, from this century or near enough.
I can think of a few for myself that just about meet these requirements.
Tom McCarthy - Remainder
I always mention this book as it really did impress me when I read it. The story concerns a guy who has some kind of unspecified accident and then receives a large amount of compensation which he uses to buy a tower block and populate it with actors that he pays to repeatedly act out various scenes from his previous life trying to capture some elusive... something. The fairly interesting film Synecdoche NY stumbled on the same plot a few years later (by coincidence they claim) but the book is far preferable having this overwhelming strangeness captured within its simple and precise language.
Mark L Danielewski - House of Leaves
This book obviously caused quite a stir when it appeared (actually mid to late 90s I think) - and deservedly so cos despite it having a kind of nested structure of stories within stories within stories and writing that disappears into footnotes or which is written in spirals that force you to rotate the book as you read it, plus inserts representing supposedly factual reports and other pages that are seemingly pointless lists of random information (some real and some made up), it all adds up to a surprisingly effective horror story. I think they call it ergodic literature and this is a perfect marriage of experiment and pulp novel.
Danielewski has written some other novels and I understand they push the unusual structure even further, maybe I should check them out.
Ryan O'Neil - Their Brilliant Careers
I picked this up after being intrigued by the description Jenks gave on the "what are you reading now" thread and I'm glad I did cos I enjoyed every second of it. In fact I had to lend it to a friend cos I was laughing so much when I was reading it at his house and he basically demanded the chance to find out what all the fuss was about. Anyway, each chapter is about a different Australian author - one is a mystery writer, one a plagiarist, some are poets and so on - and each chapter is a potted biography of each one, there are loads of jokes about literature (er, so it fails to satisfy my original point, although it's jokes about James Joyce or Agatha Christie or whatever, it requires a basic knowledge of literature of the 20th century I guess but it's not esoteric or elite knowledge to my mind) and the book grows in power as you go on because the lives overlap and you gain more and more insights into this imaginary Australian scene and how it fits together. And yeah, it's really very very funny in parts. And, it actually made me go and read the book Tarnsmen of Gor, the first in John Norman's interminable sci-fi series of books whose incredibly cheesey covers had fascinated me in book shops as a child. Though to be honest that's not a good thing.
Chris Krauss - I Love Dick
I hesitate to include this cos it's only half good - and I guess it also involves literary knowledge now I come to think of it - but is an interesting book in that it chronicles the weird story of a woman who (pretty much) decides to fall in love with a guy (Dick) after meeting him one and then making her pursuit (stalking) of him a kind of shit artistic project consisting of discussions between her and her husband, letters that she wrote and didn't send to dick, letters that she did... and, more interestingly, other bits when she reminisces about the art scene in NY or writes really good reviews of films or shows or whatever. Those bits unconnected to the Dick story are the strongest, but overall the hodge-podge of bits and bobs are what make the book unusual and interesting. I have to say that I find the author quite unlikable, she has managed to build up a portfolio of property that she rents out which allows her to spend her time making failed films and so on and there is something quite unattractive at times about the way she moans about having to deal with all this stuff which basically makes her much wealthier and more independent than ninety percent of people on the planet.
Anyway, please give me tips for recent, weird new books in the above kind of ways (or others) - or tell me what you think of the above if you've read them or whatever really. It makes a change from talking about Roth and Updike anyhow right?
I can think of a few for myself that just about meet these requirements.
Tom McCarthy - Remainder
I always mention this book as it really did impress me when I read it. The story concerns a guy who has some kind of unspecified accident and then receives a large amount of compensation which he uses to buy a tower block and populate it with actors that he pays to repeatedly act out various scenes from his previous life trying to capture some elusive... something. The fairly interesting film Synecdoche NY stumbled on the same plot a few years later (by coincidence they claim) but the book is far preferable having this overwhelming strangeness captured within its simple and precise language.
Mark L Danielewski - House of Leaves
This book obviously caused quite a stir when it appeared (actually mid to late 90s I think) - and deservedly so cos despite it having a kind of nested structure of stories within stories within stories and writing that disappears into footnotes or which is written in spirals that force you to rotate the book as you read it, plus inserts representing supposedly factual reports and other pages that are seemingly pointless lists of random information (some real and some made up), it all adds up to a surprisingly effective horror story. I think they call it ergodic literature and this is a perfect marriage of experiment and pulp novel.
Danielewski has written some other novels and I understand they push the unusual structure even further, maybe I should check them out.
Ryan O'Neil - Their Brilliant Careers
I picked this up after being intrigued by the description Jenks gave on the "what are you reading now" thread and I'm glad I did cos I enjoyed every second of it. In fact I had to lend it to a friend cos I was laughing so much when I was reading it at his house and he basically demanded the chance to find out what all the fuss was about. Anyway, each chapter is about a different Australian author - one is a mystery writer, one a plagiarist, some are poets and so on - and each chapter is a potted biography of each one, there are loads of jokes about literature (er, so it fails to satisfy my original point, although it's jokes about James Joyce or Agatha Christie or whatever, it requires a basic knowledge of literature of the 20th century I guess but it's not esoteric or elite knowledge to my mind) and the book grows in power as you go on because the lives overlap and you gain more and more insights into this imaginary Australian scene and how it fits together. And yeah, it's really very very funny in parts. And, it actually made me go and read the book Tarnsmen of Gor, the first in John Norman's interminable sci-fi series of books whose incredibly cheesey covers had fascinated me in book shops as a child. Though to be honest that's not a good thing.
Chris Krauss - I Love Dick
I hesitate to include this cos it's only half good - and I guess it also involves literary knowledge now I come to think of it - but is an interesting book in that it chronicles the weird story of a woman who (pretty much) decides to fall in love with a guy (Dick) after meeting him one and then making her pursuit (stalking) of him a kind of shit artistic project consisting of discussions between her and her husband, letters that she wrote and didn't send to dick, letters that she did... and, more interestingly, other bits when she reminisces about the art scene in NY or writes really good reviews of films or shows or whatever. Those bits unconnected to the Dick story are the strongest, but overall the hodge-podge of bits and bobs are what make the book unusual and interesting. I have to say that I find the author quite unlikable, she has managed to build up a portfolio of property that she rents out which allows her to spend her time making failed films and so on and there is something quite unattractive at times about the way she moans about having to deal with all this stuff which basically makes her much wealthier and more independent than ninety percent of people on the planet.
Anyway, please give me tips for recent, weird new books in the above kind of ways (or others) - or tell me what you think of the above if you've read them or whatever really. It makes a change from talking about Roth and Updike anyhow right?
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