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Old 05-25-2012, 08:52 AM   #1
Rizla
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Good non-genre books please?
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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Old 05-25-2012, 10:39 AM   #2
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Authors that are literary and cross genres that I'd recommend based on your list are Cormac McCarthy and Margaret Atwood. The classic To Kill a Mockingbird comes to mind and I'm partial to John Irving's The Cider House Rules. Less literary suggestions would be The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
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Old 05-25-2012, 10:41 PM   #3
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I don't like any of those. But thanks for trying
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Old 05-26-2012, 08:46 PM   #4
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You like Chandler, have you tried Charlie Huston?

I enjoyed some of James Michener's historical novels. Or perhaps James Clavell.
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Old 05-27-2012, 06:38 AM   #5
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If you like Ishiguro, have you tried Never Let Me Go? It has a dystopian setting, but it is still very literary and wasn't marketed as a genre book.

I don't read a lot of literary fiction, but among the authors I enjoy are Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore) and Umberto Eco.

Or maybe you could give David Lodge a try. I enjoyed everything I have read by him so far. He tends to be very "British", though.
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Old 05-27-2012, 06:57 AM   #6
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Have you tried this site?

www.literature-map.com
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Old 05-27-2012, 08:40 AM   #7
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I have read some of the books/authors you list, so our tastes migth overlap!

Assuming you'd like to try other authors, in which case I'd suggest the following:
- Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow.
- James Leo Herlihy's Midnight Cowboy
- Andrea Levy's Small Island
- Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita
- Albert Camus' The Stranger

These are very different in style and "approach", so hope one of them will take your fancy

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Have you tried this site?

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thanks John!
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Old 05-27-2012, 09:52 AM   #8
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Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami

Lolita by Nabokov

Middlesex by Eugenides

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Old 05-27-2012, 09:58 AM   #9
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I'd suggest Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.
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Old 05-28-2012, 05:05 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John F View Post
Have you tried this site?

www.literature-map.com
Now that is fun

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizla View Post
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.
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
Last edited by taosaur; 05-28-2012 at 05:13 PM.
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Old 05-28-2012, 05:44 PM   #11
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For magical realism by an American author, try Beloved by Toni Morrison.

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Old 05-30-2012, 10:14 PM   #12
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I'd also suggest a Knut Hamsun novel, HUNGER
As well as:
THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole

(I enjoyed Ondaatje's IN THE SKIN OF A LION which you had in your list...read it 21 years ago after receiving it as a departing gift from an American girlfriend who'd studied here in Scotland a few months. Haven't thought of the book in years, nice to be reminded!)
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