Book to read

[litjust]

If you like contemporary, I HIGHLY recommend Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

I absolutely LOVE this book! Junot Diaz is brilliant. Keeping in the same line -- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez is wonderful.

[TripWillis]

Ooh, The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake. Also Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke.

[perrykm2]

If you're looking for a true classic, you can't do better than the Quixote. It's super readable, and once you've read it, it's amazing to see how many books and films have been [sometimes heavily] influenced by Cervantes. Reading Don Quixote and then reading Frankenstein right after is totally a WTF experience.

[perrykm2]

It's SO funny.

[perrykm2]

If you like contemporary, I HIGHLY recommend Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Don't think I am a huge jerk for bragging about this, but my school had a Latina/o Writers Festival and Junot Diaz was the main speaker, and because I presented a paper at the semi-conference (small panels of speakers) about Junot Diaz and Edwidge Danticat, I got to be the "student ambassador" and take him on a tour of the campus (with 10000 other people in the English Department) and got him to sign my copy of Drown. He was so funny; it was magical.

[Timshel]

Don't think I am a huge jerk for bragging about this, but my school had a Latina/o Writers Festival and Junot Diaz was the main speaker, and because I presented a paper at the semi-conference (small panels of speakers) about Junot Diaz and Edwidge Danticat, I got to be the "student ambassador" and take him on a tour of the campus (with 10000 other people in the English Department) and got him to sign my copy of Drown. He was so funny; it was magical.

I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooo jealous! He is one of my favorites. In fact, my writing sample was on Oscar Wao. The school I teach at now is having Cristina Garcia here in a few weeks, so I'm pretty stoked about that! I can't wait to meet her!

[perrykm2]

My statement of purpose is about how researching the traumatic effects of the Trujillo dictatorship in popular Dominican/Haitian literature guided me to my current scholarly interests.

I think we're birds of a feather.

I've never read anything by Christina Garcia, but it's so exciting to meet people you look up to. Not just like "I love your movies, Denzel Washington!," but like "your book or theories have competely changed the way I live in the world."

[Tabz]

I know you were looking for classics, but I absolutely adored The Hunger Games triology. Reminded me why I want to write again.

[Timshel]

My statement of purpose is about how researching the traumatic effects of the Trujillo dictatorship in popular Dominican/Haitian literature guided me to my current scholarly interests.

I think we're birds of a feather.

I've never read anything by Christina Garcia, but it's so exciting to meet people you look up to. Not just like "I love your movies, Denzel Washington!," but like "your book or theories have competely changed the way I live in the world."

That is almost identical to my own interests.

[Enzian]

Oh my gosh, I truly abhorred the very little that I read of this book, which I'm totally prepared to admit is probably just me, because I am aware that it's universally loved and critically acclaimed. I read about five pages (highly untypical of me, but this, seriously, was all I could bear) and couldn't handle the (forced and failed) precociousness of the (deeply unfunny) narrative voice at all. I hated how explicitly (hamfistedly, even) fukú was being banged over my head, too. In fact, as I read, I began to feel physically ill, my irritation mollified only by turning my attention to how best to dispose of the book.

Never before have I reacted to a book so strongly. I would genuinely love to know how/why people love it. Perhaps it's just that I didn't give it enough of a chance? (But maybe it's Díaz's writing; I read an inane New Yorker piece on Obama that he wrote, so bland and infuriatingly simplistic in its conclusions that I won't bore you with them here.)

I'm kind of with you. I wouldn't say I abhorred it. There were parts I enjoyed. And there were many parts I thought were "okay." Several of my friends raved about it and I, like parents, just don't understand. But I read it all, so that says something...maybe about my own fear of not finishing what I've started (thanks, Jumanji).

To the OP, I recommend the not-too-old-but-not-too-new-classic "Catch-22," unless you had to read it for school and have already formed an opinion in which case I recommend "The Master & Margarita" which is far more Russian and equally funny. Also, there's a big cat with a pince-nez named "Behemoth" that talks and is evil. How is that not awesome?!

[DorindaAfterThyrsis]

But I read it all, so that says something...maybe about my own fear of not finishing what I've started (thanks, Jumanji).

I just snorted coffee through my nose. This sentence made my day.

[Jbarks]

southern lit fan here, seconded!

Keeping with Southern Lit, I just read Flannery O' Conner's Wise Blood. I highly recommend.

Also, Michael Cunningham's Specimen Days.

Well, as I focus on early modern and medieval lit, I'm not sure I'll have a lot for you

You should read Barry Unsworth's Morality Play if you haven't done so already.

[cquin]

Keeping with Southern Lit, I just read Flannery O' Conner's Wise Blood. I highly recommend.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find also by O'Conner. It's one of my all time favorite collections; her writing is so bizarre and funny and disturbing and delightful.

[Timshel]

A Good Man Is Hard to Find also by O'Conner. It's one of my all time favorite collections; her writing is so bizarre and funny and disturbing and delightful.

If you are ever in the Savannah area, visit her childhood home. I have been to a lot of literary places, and this was, by far, my most favorite. The man who gives the tours was very passionate and give very interesting anecdotes that you wouldn't find it just some biography. Loved it!

[lyonessrampant]

Ha! Evelyn Waugh is my favorite author, I think. I have read just about everything that he has written except for his letters (and I am saving a couple of novels for a rainy day - I have already purchased them!).

Have you read Confederacy of Dunces? (John Kennedy Toole) I would absolutely recommend it to anyone, although I have met people that didn't like it.

I've been told it is good but haven't read it yet. I'll add that to my Kindle list Thanks!

[marlowe]

I've been told it is good but haven't read it yet. I'll add that to my Kindle list Thanks!

De nada. It really is a hilarious and fantastic novel. And you'll love it: the protagonist (if you can call him that!) is a medievalist!

[lyonessrampant]

De nada. It really is a hilarious and fantastic novel. And you'll love it: the protagonist (if you can call him that!) is a medievalist!

Ooooohhhh! Sounds perfect for me!

[Xie]

Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Very nice modern read and quite academic. I absolutely love her writing. Her other novel, The Little Friend, is currently studied in colleges nationwide and I have not yet read it.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road (get ready to get down in the dumps). One of my former professors just keeps the novel on his bedside table, but can't bring himself to read it. He says he is not ready.

Speaking of gloom, Faulkner's Sanctuary is incredible. The opening scene with Benbow and Popeye is so beautifully constructed. Faulkner is definitely one author I wish I could have had the pleasure of meeting. If you don't have mood swings for some time after reading his works, then I'd say you're only grazing the surface of what is really there.

[Julianne Pigoon]

Oh my gosh, I truly abhorred the very little that I read of this book, which I'm totally prepared to admit is probably just me, because I am aware that it's universally loved and critically acclaimed. I read about five pages (highly untypical of me, but this, seriously, was all I could bear) and couldn't handle the (forced and failed) precociousness of the (deeply unfunny) narrative voice at all. I hated how explicitly (hamfistedly, even) fukú was being banged over my head, too. In fact, as I read, I began to feel physically ill, my irritation mollified only by turning my attention to how best to dispose of the book.

Never before have I reacted to a book so strongly. I would genuinely love to know how/why people love it. Perhaps it's just that I didn't give it enough of a chance? (But maybe it's Díaz's writing; I read an inane New Yorker piece on Obama that he wrote, so bland and infuriatingly simplistic in its conclusions that I won't bore you with them here.)

This made me :[ so many times. I loved Oscar Wao, it's one of the books I was going to recommend. I think it's well‒written, intriguing in its subject matter, and contains many elements of postmodernism that haven't yet gone out of fashion for being obnoxious. It moved me to tears at multiple moments, which is something contemporary lit seldom does for me. I have to say, though, that your polemic was so vehement I started to worry about my own taste.

On another note, one of my favorite contemporary novels is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It's not her best, in my opinion, but its tone is true to the times. I've been returning to it and recommending it since high school. If you're a novice reader, and you can vividly remember The Giver, you may like the dystopian science fiction nature of Oryx and Crake. Pigoons, for instance, are a species of genetically‒engineered pig able to grow human neocortexes.

If you're looking to read a "classic," so to speak, I, too, recommend Faulkner. I disagree that As I Lay Dying is better or more enjoyable than The Sound and the Fury, but it's probably more accessible on the first read.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is Poe's only novel. It's worth a go. If you're looking for a contemporaneous author, Dickens is the one. I tried reading Bleak House, but didn't get very far, although I see the merit. I would have seen it more if Dickens hadn't been paid by the word. 19th century lit is not my field, however, so I'm talking out of my ass.

If you haven't read Richard III, do it. It's my favorite Shakespeare play.

I also don't think thestage was trying to make fun of you, just pointing out that Moby Dick was published later than any of Poe's work. We're all literature professionals and hopefuls here, and I think we all try to be accommodating, if we're a little nerdy :]

Edited February 15, 2012 by Julianne Pigoon

[cquin]

Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Very nice modern read and quite academic. I absolutely love her writing. Her other novel, The Little Friend, is currently studied in colleges nationwide and I have not yet read it.

Amazing is too weak of a word to describe her writing, in my opinion. I love Donna Tartt so much. I've been waiting since The Little Friend--that was ten years ago--for her to release a new novel. I guess it's quality over quantity for her.

[Xie]

Amazing is too weak of a word to describe her writing, in my opinion. I love Donna Tartt so much. I've been waiting since The Little Friend--that was ten years ago--for her to release a new novel. I guess it's quality over quantity for her.

Gosh, this is so true. Read through her interviews if you haven't already. I love that it takes her years to complete a novel. Unlike James Patterson, who writes a book a day (or has someone else write most of them).

[DorindaAfterThyrsis]

Did a quick scan-through and don't think anyone has mentioned this one yet: I honestly can't say enough good things about Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. I don't think I've ever read historical fiction done so effortlessly. Her characters are utterly engrossing, and her writing is devoid of the usual conspicuous affectations that seem to plague other writer's of the genre. I read it over Christmas (and immediately post-application submitting), so perhaps my judgement is a little skewed by it being the first novel I've read solely for pleasure in godknowshowfreakinglong, but I was fascinated by this book. Her Thomas Cromwell is one of the fullest, most nuanced, and most compelling characterizations I've read from a contemporary writer in a very long time, and the paradoxes, contradictions, and rigorous self-awareness she builds into him result in an incredibly complete and rich portrait of a society in transition (which, being an Early Modernist, is something I am obsessed with).

I think it's a timeless piece of work (and so did the people who decide the Booker Prize), and am beside myself with excitement that she's going to be making it into a trilogy.

I never rave about contemporary fiction this way (gotta maintain my hip lit snob image, ya know? ), but this book absolutely beguiled me. It had already secured itself a place on my "Top 10 Novels" list by the time I was two chapters in.

I was utterly and ridiculously smitten with this book. Everyone must read it.

[DorindaAfterThyrsis]

Forgot to add: The Canadian in me is glad to see Atwood's name popping up (even though I personally like her less and less the more I read her....and being a lit major in a Canadian University, you can trust me when I say I've read her A LOT. ), but I'd like to make a plug for a few (imho) far superior and less widely read Canadians:

Anne-Marie MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees is absolutely heartbreaking, if a little over-wrought; anything by Michael Ondaatje should be read, and re-read, and then read again, simply for the unreal beauty of his prose; and if you're looking for something lighter and a little acerbic, you can't go wrong with Mordecai Richler (I'm fond of Barney's Version. Great summertime cottage/beach reading).

Yay for Canada! I am slightly-more-than-moderately enthusiastic about some of the literature produced in my country in the past half-century! Hooray for lukewarm patriotism!

This post has been brought to you by the Canada Council for the Arts.

[Julianne Pigoon]

Thanks for all of the suggestions, Dorinda. I'm personally excited to explore some Canadian authors other than Atwood when someday I have the ability to read what I'd like. If ever.

[thestage]

canada isn't a country, don't be silly.