In Search of Good Fiction

I recently whizzed through Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford Univ. Press, 2000) by Jonathan Culler, a literary Brit. It covers a variety of interesting issues surrounding narrative of all sorts (literary, historical, or cultural). Reading the book has whetted my appetite to read a few novels, so I'm soliciting recommendations. I'm inclined toward American fiction; I suppose I ought to read Huck Finn sometime.

I tested the waters on this morning's visit to the library. Repaying an old debt (it was assigned in high school English, I never read it but scored the highest grade in the class on the essay anyway) I checked out Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (1929). I also found Williwaw (1946), Gore Vidal's first novel, based on his experience as a mate on a merchant vessel sailing in Alaskan waters during World War II. Other ideas?

Comments

[Ann]

A Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

[Jeremy]

Not American fiction, but I'm telling everyone I see to read Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

Also, I've been reading some edgy contemporary American fiction as well, and will recommend two titles even though you seem a little interested in earlier, more tried and true books. But anyway... Couldn't put down Franzen's _The Corrections_ That's the one the author got all snooty about because Oprah picked it for her book club and he thought himself to literary to appear on her show. Great book nonetheless, though (kinda racy in spots). Also, I'm currently having a love/hate relationship with Eggars's _A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius_.

[JL]

The last good fiction I read was "Forever" by by Pete Hamill. It's about a man who gets cursed/blessed with immortality as long as he stays in Manhattan. He arrives in the 18th century and then the book ends with him in our time.

[Arwyn]

I'm not well-versed in American lit beyond what I read in high school English classes, and you've probably already read all of those.

But if you're up for some interesting, amusing, yet thought-provoking Russian lit outside of the dark depths of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy's troubled absolutism, give Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" a shot.

It's about the devil coming to spend a weekend in Moscow and the havoc (both temporal and spiritual) that ensues. It's an interesting topic given the official policy of athiesm at the time.

Interspersed within are chapters from a fictional account of Christ's last day writen by a man who calls himself The Master. Bulgakov an interesting view of that, and of humanity, etc.

If you try it, get the Burgin and O'Connor translation, though...the others are somewhat sketchy.

[Grasshopper]

I second the recommendations of Handmaid's Tale and Life of Pi. And if you're going back to some of the classics, I think The Grapes of Wrath is a great read.

[Nathan]

I'll cast a vote against The Handmaid's Tale, actually. But yes, read Huck Finn, read The Great Gatsby, and read Camus' The Stranger -- the best American novel ever written by a Frenchman.

[lyle]

How about the book Cheaper by the Dozen; I don't think the recent movie is related except by implication.

[spencer]

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a very interesting read.

[lyle]

second on da vinci code. fun read; and most of the criticisms of organized religion only apply to 'historic' christianity. i think the LDS church, doctrinally at least, is exempt from any threat from this book (although others churches hate it).

[cooper]

I recommend "Follow the River, Panther in the Sky and the Long Knife" by Jame Alexander Thom. They are great historical fiction.

[danithew]

I just read Da Vinci code as well as Angels and Demons by the same author. These books are simply entertaining fun reads -- they sort of keep you on your toes waiting for the author to feed you that next tidbit of information. I am not sure I'd bother to reread them though (as I often do with books that I love).

I second Arwyn's suggestion of "the Master and Margarita." I only got around to checking out that book once, but it was definitely an interesting read. Russian literature is often lengthy, deep and difficult to slog through -- but there are usually rewards as a result (I blame it on the long Russian winters -- what else could you do but write and write and write during that time period?). If you do venture into Russian literature and you never got a chance to read Brothers Karamazov, then that's definitely a good way to go. But I'm guessing you've already been down that path.

[Arwyn]

Oh, indeed. Can't go wrong with Brothers Karamazov -- except if you're watching the movie that stars Yul Brenner as Dmitri and William Shatner as the saintly Alyosha. Then you've gone wrong.

[Greg]

I can't resist these "what's your favorite ___?" posts. Anyway, here are relatively recent novels I'd recommend:

Atonement (McEwan)
The Fortress of Solitude (Lethem)
The Corrections (Franzen)
Native Speaker (Lee)
The Reader (Schlink)

And here are some classics, many of which you've probably already read:

Lolita (Nabokov)
Moby Dick (Melville)
Ragtime (Doctorow)
The Crying of Lot 49 (Pynchon)
Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut)

And I think Twain, and Huck Finn in particular, holds the same spot in American literature as Balzac does for the French, or Dickens for the English, or Goethe for the German.

[Grasshopper]

There's also some very good young reader fiction by Lois Lowry. If you haven't read "The Giver", read it!

[Clark Goble]

Just so you all know, Margaret Attwood is *Canadian* not American. I know I was forced to trudge through her writings all the time in school up in Canada. (Can't stand here, in case you can't tell).

I loved Vonnegut's _Slaughterhouse Five_ until I found out he wasn't being sarcastic quite in the way I was reading him. (i.e. he really was a depressed nihilist and not making fun of them) Now I can't read it the same way and it has become a very depressing book for me. But originally I thought it hilarious.

I've never made it through Melville. In general I have a hard time with 19th century literature for some reason. I love a lot of 20th century stuff though. Even though half his stuff are plays, Tennessee Williams is one of the greatest American writers in my opinion. I love Fitzgerald although I must confess to not reading that much by him nor his wife. But _The Great Gatsby_ is a very fine book. Almost anything by Steinbeck is as well. I like some Faulkner, although not as much as most others do.

Two great American authors who get little respect here but are worth of it are Poe and Lovecraft. Interestingly Poe is very respected in France, especially his analysis of poetry. He writes in a style that is almost *not* 19th century. Very ahead of his time.

[Arwyn]

I think I read Great Gatsby too many times for high school literature classes to really appreciate it -- it's one of my least favorite books. But I read This Side of Paradise my freshman year of college and remember really enjoying that one to the point of Fitzgerald finding redemption in my eyes.

[danithew]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest one non-fiction book... just because I think it is so good. Some time ago I read a book by James McBride, called "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother."

Not only is his mother White, but she's of Eastern European Jewish background, a convert to Christianity, and a mother of twelve children she had with two African-American men who passed away as the children were growing up. The book interposes chapters about the author's mother's life with chapters about the author's experiences growing up. Five Stars. Two-thumbs up.

[Greg]

Color of Water was a nice little memoir; the Jewish mother in the black ghetto was a sharply drawn, memorable character.

Clark, if you don't like 19th century lit (I'm with you to a certain extent), you really oughta give Melville another chance. If what you don't like about 19th century writing is the Emersonian self-reliance/transcendentalism stuff, Melville's work rails against that. If what you don't like is the stylized, mannered prose of Henry James, Melville provides a strikingly differently voice, one that eventually gave rise to Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Hemingway. Melville's later short stories are a good place to start if you don't want to invest the time necessary for Moby Dick -- Billy Budd, Benito Cereno, and Bartleby the Scrivener are all wonderful.

And since Clark mentioned drama, I'll have to plug Eugene O'Neill and especially _Long Day's Journey Into Night_.

[Dave]

Thanks for all the ideas, folks. Let me just scribble a few notes down here for later reference, pay no attention . . . .

A Handmaid's Tale, Atwood (got three votes, and two were yes)
The Brothers K, Dostoevsky (I liked Gorky Park, what the heck)
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald (any book with 'great' in the title has promise)
Lolita, Nabakov (if Sting read it, I can too)
Slaughterhouse Five (gotta read something by Vonnegut)

[Kristine]

Try some David James Duncan--River Teeth, a collection of short essays/stories is a good intro., then try The Brothers K and The River Why.

Since you mention high school English, I always thought Catcher in the Rye was overrated, but I love Franny and Zooey.

Something of an acquired taste, but I like Nicholson Baker--Room Temperature is short and somewhat representative. He's a better essayist than novelist, in my ever-so-humble opinion.

Jeremy, I also can't decide whether to love Dave Eggers or want to wring his self-indulgent neck :)

And you wouldn't want to make a list of American novels that didn't include some Willa Cather--I love My Antonia, but Death Comes for the Archbishop is staggeringly good.

I like Reynolds Price a lot, also, although lately he seems to write the same book over and over again. He's one of those people who wrote his great work, _Kate Vaiden_, early in his career and hasn't always been able to match it.

Hmmm. This could go on for a long time. I should stop.

But, oh yeah, Wallace Stegner!!!