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Nothing to do with being a girl, lyra, I didn't like it at all. I probably didn't get it either.
Posts: 1493 | From: Loondoon | Registered: Feb 2004
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Sure it isn't, I just mentioned it because Pants seemed unsure!
I'm glad you said that. I remember reading it and thinking 'but when is all the brilliant stuff going to start?' I did also blame myself for not understanding it.
Posts: 2387 | From: Arcadia | Registered: Aug 2006
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lyra: apologies - I didn't know if you were male or female. But no apologies for dissing you about 'The Great Gatsby'! Sounds like you're possibly trying to read too much into it - it's really simple. Did you catch D'Angelo's analysis of it on The Wire? Pretty much spot on, I thought.
On Mitchell's Ghostwritten, well he's clearly a big Murakami fan, but I reckon he's pushed that novel miles further than just being a rip-off. I don't think Murakami would ever have come up with the being-with-no-body chapter: he's not a sci-fi nerd like Mitchell. I thought Number9 Dream was far more Murakami-ish, but again, just writing offbeat Japanese characters doesn't mean he's a rip-off merchant.
Crime and Punishment god, no. (Except for the first few chapters ending with the murder. The rest is just tedious.)
Posts: 6506 | From: I hear New Zealand is nice | Registered: Jun 2002
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The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald (I really like her writing, effortless, graceful and with some excellent little observations about humanity).
Atomised - Michel Houellbecq, acidic but thought provoking perspective on our society.
Quinn's Book - William Kennedy, great fun, over the top Irish American saga around the US Civil War.
Posts: 1904 | From: a grassy knoll | Registered: Jun 2003
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The Possibility of an Island by houllebecq is far better than Atomised, I think, though Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake plays the same game immeasurably better than either...
Posts: 17027 | From: your gaff, nicking stuff. | Registered: Oct 2002
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What all the advocates have said about The Great Gatsby. One of the great things about Scott Fitzgerald was that he could write so brilliantly, and with such depth, about shallow people (and non-shallow ones too, of course).
America absolutely bossed the 20th century, literature-wise.
Posts: 12564 | From: The bus lane | Registered: May 2002
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quote:For Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five is essential, the rest of his stuff is very variable.
My top three Vonnegut books are Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Cat's Cradle. They vary their positions at the top based on which one I've read most recently. I think they're all brilliant.
Not a novel, but I think Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius deserves some consideration. Like it or not, it's been a very influential book.
Posts: 16877 | From: Gobias Industries | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:America absolutely bossed the 20th century, literature-wise.
Oh, I think your Irish, your Czechs, your Germans and (to some extent) your Brits did OK.
Speaking of a couple of those, have we had Gunter Grass, and have we had Evelyn Waugh? The Tin Drum from Grass, and Scoop (early, short, comic) or Brideshead Revisited (late, longer, serious) from Waugh.
Posts: 19927 | From: the Cryptic Cabal | Registered: May 2002
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There are quite a few US Americans on here but it's not exactly dominated by them is it?
Posts: 14456 | From: Magyaristan | Registered: May 2002
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Now I've got this mental image of ooh aah, stuck in a tiny hotel room, surrounded on all sides by huge piles of books, unable to get to the door and freaking out with Serious Literature Overload.
Posts: 3266 | From: London | Registered: Sep 2002
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