Suggest me a good book to read

General Fiction (Not contemporary, not yet a classic and does not fit in specific categories)
Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk

History
Open Veins of Latin America - Eduardo Galeano

Reply 61

FormerlyHistoryStudent

16

Original post by Ape Gone Insane

Added

Sorry

Believe it or not I had a longer list originally - I had to go through it cutting ones out, but even after that there were so many I simply couldn't leave out... dunno if anyone will take any notice of them though. I really hope they do though of course!

Reply 62

faber niger

17

I've just read Nabokov's Lolita (for the second time), and I'm now looking for something in a similar vein -- not necessarily in subject matter, but in terms of a similar kind of poetic/playful style. All recommendations welcomed!

Reply 63

andyyy

2

Other books by Nabokov? Ada or Ardor is especially similar to Lolita.

Reply 64

Catsmeat

13

Pale Fire, again by Nabokov, was one of his last novels; it is, I think, the peak of his ability as a wordsmith. As you say, it has that same "playful" style that we see in Lolita, yet it is more coherent, tapering around fewer ideas (at least on the surface).

One of the authors inspired by Nabokov was Thomas Pynchon. He doesn't have Nabokov's strict and erudite control over language, but he does have a poetic grasp of modern (that is, 40s-70s) America and his 'play' (he's more engaged with pop culture and Americana). Gravity's Rainbowand V are both brilliant, albeit chaotic. I've got his Against the Day sitting on my shelf at the moment, demanding my time.

In translation, Andrei Bely still has a poetic/playful use of language (for example, Petersburg). Finally, Umberto Eco springs to mind (The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Baudolino, and Focault's Pendulum).

Reply 65

faber niger

17

Original post by Catsmeat

Pale Fire, again by Nabokov, was one of his last novels; it is, I think, the peak of his ability as a wordsmith. As you say, it has that same "playful" style that we see in Lolita, yet it is more coherent, tapering around fewer ideas (at least on the surface).

One of the authors inspired by Nabokov was Thomas Pynchon. He doesn't have Nabokov's strict and erudite control over language, but he does have a poetic grasp of modern (that is, 40s-70s) America and his 'play' (he's more engaged with pop culture and Americana). Gravity's Rainbowand V are both brilliant, albeit chaotic. I've got his Against the Day sitting on my shelf at the moment, demanding my time.

In translation, Andrei Bely still has a poetic/playful use of language (for example, Petersburg). Finally, Umberto Eco springs to mind (The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Baudolino, and Focault's Pendulum).

Thanks (to andyyy too), that was very helpful.

Also, since I see that you're doing an MA in Russian Literature, what's your opinion of The Master and The Margarita (assuming that you've read it)? It seems really interesting, in a magic realist kind of way.

Reply 66

member520746

Nabokov wrote extensively about his love of 'Madame Bovary' by Gustave Flaubert and delivered several lectures on it so that would be a good place to begin.

Reply 67

Catsmeat

13

Original post by jismith1989

Thanks (to andyyy too), that was very helpful.

Also, since I see that you're doing an MA in Russian Literature, what's your opinion of The Master and The Margarita (assuming that you've read it)? It seems really interesting, in a magic realist kind of way.

Yes. Hm. I think that Master I margarita is best read in light of authors such as Gogol, and perhaps Andrei Bely; that is, a complex work whose production and reception were equally distended. The problem is, I think, that Bulgakov's complexity led to anxiety about its inferred meanings and its audience; was it purely a social satire (in part, it was; but not of soviet power per se)? Or, does it raise questions of the novels' generic place in relation to what we might now call its anxiety of influence; in this case, the authority and influence of the 19th century 'masters' (such as Dostoevskii). I also believe that its use of myth and of the New Testament, in the Pilate scenes, also caused a great deal of critical fury. There's a great deal of literary criticism (recent) that emphasises the importance of these historical segments to a reading of the novel. This hasn't been popular among those who read it as unadulterated satire ... but this is all important, especially considering that the novel can be read as an essay on the writing of a work, the responsibility of the author to the world they depict, and the role of truth, as a literary truth, in relation to deception and suppression. Bulgakov worked as a literary bureaucrat for a while, and it was the Moscow literary scene that is so infamous for its sophistry, factionalism and politiking. More than a few critics have seen a connection here.

Whatever can be said about it in terms of its production and reception, it is a brilliant and oddball contribution to life in the post-revolutionary period. Not as unique as Yuri Olesha's Envy, nor as existentially thought provoking as Andrei Platonov's The Foundation Pit. But I like it, partly because it does such unusual and ambiguous things with language and plot; this is where Bulgakov seems Gogolian, because the reader, especially after a diet of socialist realism, was unprepared for something that seems bored by conventions. It wouldn't, perhaps, have had such an impact if it was published at the time of writing. A major complaint is that Bulgakov has become the darling of anti-Stalinism, ignorning the more complex ends that he was trying to achieve that were, very much, artefacts of artistic experimentation in the 1920s (similar to what the FEKS group were doing in cinema, or perhaps Eisenstein's visual montage). What he does very well is to mislead the reader with carnival and slapstick; he plays games in a very similar way to Nabokov.

If you are interested in reading further into satirists and fantastical realists of the 20s, Olesha, Platonov, Sergei Budantsev and Valentin Kataev are the folks that are worth reading. Platonov was the most 'fantastical' of these writers. Kataev is in some regards the most similar to Bulgakov (for instance, his The Embezzlers).

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 68

gingerrama

14

Perfume (Patrick Suskind) - General Fiction

Reply 69

bananabrain

13

Hey everybody, I'm looking for some books to read, but don't really know which ones to buy/ ask someone to get me for christmas so I was wondering if you kind people could give me some recommendations.
I'm looking for fiction books (not really into autobiographies/biographies), here are some examples of books that I like:
Adrian Mole
Harry Potter
Twilight Saga

Thanks :smile:

Reply 70

lonely14

15

The Lord of the rings? :dontknow:

Reply 71

Bella Occhi

16

His Dark Materials and Discworld are both excellent fantasy series :yep:

Reply 72

finestory

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak.
Best book I've ever read, and can't rant and rave about it enough. :smile:

And then ermm, Jonathan Stroud books are pretty good if you're into the whole fantasy kind of thing.

Kama Sutra.

High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
Kind of like Adrian Mole, but with less of the mentions of Pandora; and more of pop culture, and moping. Worth a look if you like music, and the early 90s...?

Reply 75

Vintage <3

16

Nought & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossani

Reply 76

rachelll=)

2

*subscribing* I'm in need of another good book :smile:

Reply 77

Vintage <3

16

Oh and Wind up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami

Reply 78

ollienbert

11

Original post by bananabrain

Hey everybody, I'm looking for some books to read, but don't really know which ones to buy/ ask someone to get me for christmas so I was wondering if you kind people could give me some recommendations.
I'm looking for fiction books (not really into autobiographies/biographies), here are some examples of books that I like:
Adrian Mole
Harry Potter
Twilight Saga

Thanks :smile:

|I loved reading the complete series of Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe beginning with the book that comes first in terms of the chronology of the series The Magician's Nephew. Though maybe if you have seen any of the films you might not enjoy them.

Failing that go to the library and get a book out and see if you can put it down before the end of chapter one. If you can't finish it :biggrin: