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I wombat - 2004-05-23 10:08:48
I don't know what you've read but I'll suggest some authors: Saramago, Russo, Robertson Davies, T.C. Boyle, Irvine Welch (if you're tastes run a little more hardcore) or Tom Robbins (for a lark. I would recommend some of these over others if you don't know him) Have you read "the Master and Margarita"? it turns out almost everyone has but I discovered it by accident a couple of years ago. And you probably already read "Motherless Brooklyn"...
I've been going around the stoop sales where the price of books, many of which I almost paid full price for in the last few years, runs from free(!) to a buck (new hardcover).
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Paula - 2004-05-23 10:23:06
The only one I've read from your list is R. Davies--went through a phase in 1995/6.
Which TC Boyle & Russo wouldja recommend?
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I wombat - 2004-05-23 10:39:06
They each have their most famous, made into a movie, books, but they are both rather consistent. But from Boyle, I'd say "Budding Prospects" or "freind of the Earth" or "Tortilla Curtain", just off hand. From Russo, "Straight Man" was the only one out of his regular stomping ground of down at the heels upstate NY (until his most recent, not his best, IMHO, "Empire Falls". So if you would like a tale of disfunctional academia, try "Straight Man, otherwise, I'd say "Nobody's Fool" or "the Risk Pool"
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Joe Mallon - 2004-05-23 16:29:48
Speaking of Russo, I recommend "She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders", the story of Jennifer Boylan (nee James Boylan), a friend of Russo's. Very interesting & poignant.
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Sue T. - 2004-05-23 20:18:11
T.C. Boyle: I loved "The Road to Wellville," about the founding of the cereal industry in Battle Creek, MI. Highly entertaining (really!). I never saw the movie... heard it was crap.
I agree w/Joe, we were both riveted by "She's Not There."
If you want something trashy & fun, my all-time favorite book in that genre is "The Bestseller" by Olivia Goldsmith (RIP). She wrote many, many books, a lot of them quite frankly awful, but "The Bestseller" is great.
And I always have to stump for "The Confederacy of Dunces" because it's so brilliant and hilarious.
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Sharples - 2004-05-24 09:55:29
I will persist in recommending Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins series (esp for summer!). Though I seem to remember lending you A RED DEATH years ago and you not getting into it, maybe things have changed since you went through your Mysteries Period. And, though I recommended MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN to you I can't do the same for FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE. Well, it has its moments, but...
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Paula - 2004-05-24 10:05:36
Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins series
Ah! Good idea. Yeah, I feel like I'm ready for those now.
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Tim W - 2004-05-24 14:32:51
just re-read Richard Powers' The Gold Bug Variations, and while I still think it could stand to be a little shorter, that doesn't stop it from being a must-read. True love, music, and genetics in a style vaguely reminiscent of Pynchon, but without the nihilism.
I continue to stand in awe of John Crowley, particularly Engine Summer and Little, Big.
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Paula - 2004-05-24 14:34:14
I loved Richard Powers' Galatea 2.0...but Gold Bug sounds even better.
You folks are comin' up with some good stuff!
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Sharples - 2004-05-24 16:13:42
re: Mosley. A nice entree to the books may be Carl Franklin's outstanding adaptation of the second book, DEVIL IN THE BLUE DRESS. I happened across it again late the other night on cable, and it has sent me on a Denzel jag. Or maybe save it for after the book, yeah that's better. Netflix!
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