Quote:
Originally Posted by John F
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Now that is fun
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizla
In non-genre terms, I like:
Michael Ondatje (Slaughter, Skin of a Lion),
Ishiguro (Artist of the floating World, Remains of the Day),
Gatsby,
Chandler (yeah, I know he's genre),
Yoram Kaniut (Confessions of a Good Arab),
Kaletski (Metro),
Heirich Boll (The Clown),
Paul Auster writes well,
etc.
Can anyone who knows and likes some of these authors' works recommend anything else I might like? I do love literature, but I find so much of it a dull slog.
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Sooooo of all those I've only read Fitzgerald, and on the literary side I tend to swing toward either Hemingway-style minimalism or asburdist magical realism, but...
The best literary/general work I've read in the last few years was Knut Hamsun's
The Growth of the Soil. I would compare it favorably with Hemingway in that it has a simplicity that is nevertheless highly evocative. It's partly the story of the modernization of Hamsun's native Norway, but it's more about the inner life of people living close to the earth.
If you like something a little racy and absurdist, Jeannette Winterson's
The Passion,
Written on the Body, or
GUT Symmetries are all great (you might try one of the former before tackling the last one).
If you want to dive in the deep end of the magical realism pool, Italo Calvino is the master. His
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller... is one of my all time favorites.
ETA: Also, if you haven't read Chekhov's short stories, absolutely do!
Man, I need to find some good American authors. Actually, one of my old writing teachers does some gorgeous magical realism with deep sympathy for his characters: Anthony Doerr. I've only read
The Shell Collector and Other Stories, but every story in there was a winner. I have his novel
About Grace on my bookshelf, but man, DTBs :P