Eagle and the Raven
Portrait of an Eye
The New York Trilogy
The Big Sleep
Fear and Trembling
Lonesome Traveler
FiccionesLost on Planet China
The Old Patagonian Express
Snow White
World War Z
Idoru
Foucault's Pendulum
The People of Paper
The Trial
Endgame
The Tin Drum
Metamorphoses
I, Claudius
3 Plays by Sophocles
Curse of the Spider Woman
Timbuktu
Riverworld
Is The Trial John Grisham? I wish one of us could get into Grisham. What're The Big Sleep and Ficciones? Are you reading, have read, or intend to read?
ReplyDeleteFranz Kafka was pretty much the John Grisham of Prague about a hundred years ago. As far as the modern Kafka goes, I'm afraid I'm going to have to say you first. Although I might be tempted to drag down with you, if you put it the right way. Because the only way that I can even entertain the thought of reading Grisham is in creating the opportunity for some future pastiche.
ReplyDeleteThese are all books that I've read down here.
I meant to tell you that I loved The New York Trilogy, which you gave to me a while ago, and was depressed by Lonesome Traveler, which you warned me about and gave me even longer ago, although it was interesting to think about Kerouac as a 1) travel writer 2) Old alcoholic (which is completely devoid of the romanticism of a young one) 3) Deadbeat washout trying to make money on a re-release of old published material 4) Member of a literary crowd who was as young as we are and concerned with most of the same things too like, for instance, cutting a way into publishing through reciprocal back-slapping (as you framed it for me).
Ficciones was the Borges I bought in NJ and was excellent and I should have discovered B as a teenager but oh well,
and The Big Sleep was a crime novel that was a fun read and prepared me for NY3ogy and only had one loose end in it. Plus they turned it into an extremely successful film noir (which Faulkner helped write the screenplay of) with Bogart and was later the basis for The Big Lebowski and made that film even more hilarious.