Subject
Reading Suggestions, Please (fwd)
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Since so many responded with suggestions, I decided to compile them
this morning into one posting in order to spare your inboxes without
depriving you of these interesting offerings. GD
_____________________________________________________________________
From: Thomas Bolt <t@tbolt.com>
TWO SERIOUS LADIES, Jane Bowles
may be found in
My Sister's Hand in Mine: The Collected Works of Jane Bowles
Paperback: 476 pages ;
Dimensions (in inches): 1.29 x 8.23 x 5.45
Publisher: Noonday Press; ; Reprint edition (May 1995)
ISBN: 0374506523
Highly recommended.
_______________________________________________________
From: RAT101@aol.com
at the risk of provoking some contempt, i'll try to recommend books that
i've enjoyed from the point of view of seeing VN as an "central european"
writer...by which i mean, similar locales and scenes as those evoked by
VN...without necessarily being related in "literary" ways: (not in order
of preference, just as i think of them)
Mikhail Bulgakov, "Master and Margarita"
Joseph Roth, "The Radetsky March"
Franz Kafka, "The Castle" + "The Trial" + "Amerika"
W.G. Sebald, "The Emigrants"
Ivo Andric, "The Bridge On The Drina"
Boris Pasternak, "Dr. Zhivago"
Milan Kundera, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"
Italo Calvino, "Difficult Loves" (short stories)
Stefan Zweig, "The Royal Game + Other Stories"
Herge, "Tintin" series of comic books
Gunther Grass, "The Tin Drum"
Rebecca West, "Black Lamb And Grey Falcon" (non-fiction)
Isaac Babel, "Stories"
Ernest Hemmingway, "A Farewell To Arms"
Robert Musil, "The Man Without Qualities" (i have to admit i haven't read
the whole thing!)
Primo Levi, "The Reawakening" (memoir)
Jerzy Kosinski, "The Painted Bird"
Hannah Arendt, "Eichmann In Jerusalem" (non-fiction)
Alfred Doblin, "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (i haven't gotten through all of
this yet either!)
Ian Fleming, "From Russia With Love"
Ismail Kadare, "The General of the Dead Army"
Patricia Highsmith, "The Talented Mr. Ripley"
i have restricted myself to books written during VN's lifetime, and
dealing obviously only with his European as opposed to American flavors.
cheers,
alan chin
______________________________________________________________
From: jansy mello <jansy@zaz.com.br>
How interesting this random list can be. Borges and Beckett are at the
very begining and the variety of authors is stunning.
Thank you for letting me share this.
I would like to add Cervantes ( Don Quijote ),
the Portuguese Ea de Queiroz
and three Brazilian writers ( among those that have been translated into
English):
Joo Guimares Rosa;
Machado de Assis;
Clarice Lispector ( to name a few ).
Jansy Mello
________________________________________________________________
From: Aline & Alexander <drescher@bcn.net>
Mr. Bennett's "suggestions, selected entirely at random" are delightful.
I would add, not at all at random:
Jane Austen
Thomas Mann
William Faulkner
[and a plug, for those who do not know her short stories,]
Toni Cade Bambara
______________________________________________________________________
From: SarahFunke@aol.com
Faulkner!
sf
______________________________________________________________________
From: Phil Howerton <phil@carolina.rr.com>
Basil:
You might try any of Alan Furst's novels. Don't tell anyone but Don
Johnson really likes them.
Phil
Judge Philip F. Howerton, Jr.
2812 Sunset Drive
Charlotte, NC 28209
___________________________________________________________________
From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Try Proust -- in French, if possible. That should keep you occupied for a
while.
___________________________________________________________________
From: Andrew Brown <as-brown@comcast.net>
Basil,
Nope. Sorry, but that's all there is. You've exhausted English literature.
You should have read slower, and then you would still have something left
for your old age.
You are wise to write off the Victorians. The 18nth, 17nth, and 16nth,
centuries are all just as bad, if not worse.
You might want to study astronomy or physics or something.
AB
this morning into one posting in order to spare your inboxes without
depriving you of these interesting offerings. GD
_____________________________________________________________________
From: Thomas Bolt <t@tbolt.com>
TWO SERIOUS LADIES, Jane Bowles
may be found in
My Sister's Hand in Mine: The Collected Works of Jane Bowles
Paperback: 476 pages ;
Dimensions (in inches): 1.29 x 8.23 x 5.45
Publisher: Noonday Press; ; Reprint edition (May 1995)
ISBN: 0374506523
Highly recommended.
_______________________________________________________
From: RAT101@aol.com
at the risk of provoking some contempt, i'll try to recommend books that
i've enjoyed from the point of view of seeing VN as an "central european"
writer...by which i mean, similar locales and scenes as those evoked by
VN...without necessarily being related in "literary" ways: (not in order
of preference, just as i think of them)
Mikhail Bulgakov, "Master and Margarita"
Joseph Roth, "The Radetsky March"
Franz Kafka, "The Castle" + "The Trial" + "Amerika"
W.G. Sebald, "The Emigrants"
Ivo Andric, "The Bridge On The Drina"
Boris Pasternak, "Dr. Zhivago"
Milan Kundera, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"
Italo Calvino, "Difficult Loves" (short stories)
Stefan Zweig, "The Royal Game + Other Stories"
Herge, "Tintin" series of comic books
Gunther Grass, "The Tin Drum"
Rebecca West, "Black Lamb And Grey Falcon" (non-fiction)
Isaac Babel, "Stories"
Ernest Hemmingway, "A Farewell To Arms"
Robert Musil, "The Man Without Qualities" (i have to admit i haven't read
the whole thing!)
Primo Levi, "The Reawakening" (memoir)
Jerzy Kosinski, "The Painted Bird"
Hannah Arendt, "Eichmann In Jerusalem" (non-fiction)
Alfred Doblin, "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (i haven't gotten through all of
this yet either!)
Ian Fleming, "From Russia With Love"
Ismail Kadare, "The General of the Dead Army"
Patricia Highsmith, "The Talented Mr. Ripley"
i have restricted myself to books written during VN's lifetime, and
dealing obviously only with his European as opposed to American flavors.
cheers,
alan chin
______________________________________________________________
From: jansy mello <jansy@zaz.com.br>
How interesting this random list can be. Borges and Beckett are at the
very begining and the variety of authors is stunning.
Thank you for letting me share this.
I would like to add Cervantes ( Don Quijote ),
the Portuguese Ea de Queiroz
and three Brazilian writers ( among those that have been translated into
English):
Joo Guimares Rosa;
Machado de Assis;
Clarice Lispector ( to name a few ).
Jansy Mello
________________________________________________________________
From: Aline & Alexander <drescher@bcn.net>
Mr. Bennett's "suggestions, selected entirely at random" are delightful.
I would add, not at all at random:
Jane Austen
Thomas Mann
William Faulkner
[and a plug, for those who do not know her short stories,]
Toni Cade Bambara
______________________________________________________________________
From: SarahFunke@aol.com
Faulkner!
sf
______________________________________________________________________
From: Phil Howerton <phil@carolina.rr.com>
Basil:
You might try any of Alan Furst's novels. Don't tell anyone but Don
Johnson really likes them.
Phil
Judge Philip F. Howerton, Jr.
2812 Sunset Drive
Charlotte, NC 28209
___________________________________________________________________
From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Try Proust -- in French, if possible. That should keep you occupied for a
while.
___________________________________________________________________
From: Andrew Brown <as-brown@comcast.net>
Basil,
Nope. Sorry, but that's all there is. You've exhausted English literature.
You should have read slower, and then you would still have something left
for your old age.
You are wise to write off the Victorians. The 18nth, 17nth, and 16nth,
centuries are all just as bad, if not worse.
You might want to study astronomy or physics or something.
AB