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Originally Posted by stonetools
I dont have any background on this writer at all. What is it about him that you like? Also, which of his novels would you recommend I read first?
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Well, I think I like him for the unsettling sense of "otherness" he creates in his works, as if there is another reality lurking somewhere around the corner, one that is only waiting to be discovered, but never quite reached.
Also, I enjoy the obsessions he writes about (LP records, writing, jazz, longing, aloneness). His characters attempt to communicate something that seems to be inarticulate, as if (again), this "otherness" in their lives has somehow attached itself to the very psyche of his characters.
These are novels of quests (as I mentioned a moment ago), with characters who seek to define who they are and how they fit in with their confining universe. There are no easy solutions, so don't look for something that gives easy answers. There are no answers; there are only questions. And more questions.
The first novel I read by him was "Dance Dance Dance," probably not the best start for someone who has never read him but, for me, it opened up a whole new world of discovery. That's what his novels do for me.
Don