Why? I don't know, but I like it.
So, I'm finishing In Search of Lost Time this month.
What's In Search of Lost Time?
It's a seven-part novel written by a Frenchman named Marcel Proust.
Marcel was kind of a freak boy. He grew up in what we might call the upper-middle class as the 19th turned into the 20th century, had a lot of leisure time, spent a lot of time in "society," was most likely gay, and spent the second half of his short, unhappy life in a cork-lined room writing a seven-part novel.
A hard novel to navigate, In Search of Lost Time. It spans something like 3,500 pages, which at times feels like 350,000, but the rewards therein are manifold.
It took me the better part of four years to complete it, but I loved it. The guy's now one of my all-time favs.
This is kind of the top of the mountain of literature for me, and now I'm looking for new authors to give a try on my casual descent.
In spending so much time delving into authors of Christmas Past, I've acquired a certain amount of guilt for neglecting authors of Christmas Present.
Especially since I am an author of Christmas Present.
So, I'm asking you for your recommendations. Can you tell me what to read?
Here's what I like:
Novels; not NF or memoirs.
My taste leans literary, but I'd be happy to read a genre novel with good use of language.
Anything with a rock 'n' roll backdrop is good, but hardly necessary.
The male perspective is a plus, but again, hardly necessary.
Last requirement: I need it to be from the 21st century; in other words, I'd like to support current novelists. Nothing could make me happier than for you to point me toward a contemporary fiction writer whose work I could fall in love with.
A few hints: I've liked at least some of the work of the following contemporaries:
Franzen
Perrotta
Eggers
Klosterman
This list is very American, but your recommendation need not be.
So, something literary is a pretty good guess with me, but if you love a genre writer who can craft language, I'd love to know of it.
Feel free to include your recommendations as a comment, or you can email me, if that suits you. I'll report my findings here.
Yours in laying down the blog,
Art
Buy Ghost Notes
Buy Songs from Memory
Buy Stuck Outside of Phoenix
7 comments:
Lately I'm all about Celine. Just finished "Death on the Installment Plan" and loved it. I know you dig Vonnegut a lot, as do I. Not sure if you've read him, but I highly recommend Will Self too...Especially "Great Apes."
Celine, yes! He's been recommended to me before, but I forgot about him. Sounds good and dark and twisted.
I remember seeing the cover of Great Apes, but never paid much heed to it for some reason.
Both will go into my Powell's cart.
Art
Hey Art ! If you like your Novels with suspense, mystery and a bit of class and intelligence, then you should check out the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child books. It's a team, but they also write individually.
Specifically, I would say the ones involving Special Agent Pendergast. It's quite a series, though not always connected. And if you do I would start from the beginning with Relic.
Overall, I believe there are about 8 books with Pendergast and each one is a page turner. Not really any musical background, except one of the books involves a quite rare musical instrument.
Anyway, you can check them out at Amazon or some other book site, but here are the books I would recommend in order:
Relic
Reliquary
The Cabinet of Curiosities
Still Life with Crows
Brimstone <----
Dance of Death <---- Trilogy
The Book of the Dead <----
The Wheel of Darkness
Sounds great, Chris. I will start with Relic.
Authors I've forgotten about, others I've never heard of, this is exactly what I'd hoped for.
Keep 'em coming.
Art
Well, I've always thought Dr. Seuss was quite the wordsmith, Kipling's pretty good too. :0) but in all seriousness does it ever get tiresome reading books that are about something? Have you ever tried reading a book to just escape? It's always nice to learn about other people's trials and tribulations and how they dealt with it, but what about reading a book that takes you to another land? Try Cupid and Psyche by C.S. Lewis, he's quite the wordsmith if I do say so myself.
I've spent a great deal of time with 18th century literature and have just recently delved into the present. Here's some books I fell head over heels for:
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
You Shall Know our Velocity by Dave Eggers
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
Happy reading!!
Tonissa,
Velocity is already in my cart, along with What is the What.
I've read Chabon and just didn't love it. I don't know why. My loss.
And I'll look into Pessl.
Diana,
Never been a sci-fi/fantasy reader, although I loved D&D as a kid.
And Dr. Seuss is amazing.
Art
Post a Comment