Germinal by Emil Zola. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. The Dispossed by Ursula K leGuin. Archived Message
Posted by Der on April 6, 2023, 10:00 pm, in reply to "Off topic - Recs for Novels pls: gripping ones, perhaps crime, perhaps that expose sthg of the"
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. I'm reading Devils at the moment. Leaves something to be desired. War and Peace by Tolstoy. Fierce long. Take your time. And don't tear out the list of characters to use as a bookmark. I did that as a kid so I could keep track of the characters as I read. A great idea until I lost the page. Didn't finish the book. Then. Got to it again later. That time did a photocopy of the list. There's a lot of French in War And Peace. If you're not fluent make sure you get a copy that translates the French as well as the Russian. There's a husband n wife team of translators out there. French man n Russian woman. They leave the French in French with a translation in a footnote at the bottom of the page. That doesn't work if you read on a Kobo, as I do. Part way through had to switch to a different translator. By the way the best version of Crime and Punishment is the version translated by that French n Russian couple. No French to bother one. The short stories of Anton Chekov. And Alice Munro and Flannery o'Connor. Might be short on thrills but beautiful writing. And James Joyce's Dubliners. Just from the point of view of thrills - John le Carrč and Len Deighton are very good but certainly unlikely to meet the rest of your criteria. Fevre Dream by George R R Martin is a hell of a roller coaster ride. Again thrills galore. Stephen King. Nearly all of them high in thrills. Scare the bejasus out of you. Start with Salem's Lot. Keep a crucifixion handy. For a taste without too much commitment start with the short stories. Likewise Peter Straub. Wrote lots of horror and fantasy with King. Though he's a classier writer than King. My favourite is Mystery. It's a fine detective story. Not horror. Straub died recently. And don't be too snobbish about horror. Some of it is very well written. Le Guin's Earthsea novels are pretty good. Jk Rowling nicked the idea of Harry Potter from those without giving credit. Haven't read Rowling nor do I plan to. Joseph Kanon writes good stuff. Start with The Good German. A fine book. You'll often find that as writers progress their books get better. Which is what you'd expect. Which can be a problem as the temptation can often be to read all the canon of a particular writer that you like only to discover that the early works leave something to be desired. Knut Hamsun. My favourite writer. I've read all his except part 3 of a trilogy that seems to only be available in Norwegian. People say he was a fascist. That doesn't come across in his writing. Though he was delighted when Hitler invaded Norway. I reckon he just hated Britain and the US so much he just sided with their enemy. He had nearly starved to death in the US while trying to make a living as a young writer. After the war the Norwegian government took every penny he had off him as punishment. I see him as a rampant nationalist. Shows where nationalism can lead. Managed to get clemency for several Norwegian resistance fighters after they were captured by the Germans. Start with The Growth of the Soil. A truly wonderful book. I've read it several times. I'll read it again. And read Flann O'Brien,'s The Third Policeman just for the hell of it. As I've rambled on I'm afraid I've pretty much ignored your criteria, They were tough criteria to meet. And I agree with Morrisey's James Ellroy suggestion. Excellent stuff. Avoid the True Crime stuff. Not my thing, at any rate. Ellroy's mother was murdered and he was a crime reporter to boot so he probably knows what he's doing, though. Speaking of somebody who was a crime reporter, check out Michael Connelly. Especially the Harry Bosch novels. And check out John Connolly. An Irish guy living in the US. That's enough of self indulgence. I'm going to bed. Where's my Kobo?
|
Message Thread: | This response ↓
- Off topic - Recs for Novels pls: gripping ones, perhaps crime, perhaps that expose sthg of the - marknadim April 6, 2023, 7:41 pm
- Anything by James Ellroy. - Morrissey April 6, 2023, 8:15 pm
- Re: Graham Greene. Monsignor Quixote or anything else. nm - Jackie April 6, 2023, 9:25 pm
- Germinal by Emil Zola. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. The Dispossed by Ursula K leGuin. - Der April 6, 2023, 10:00 pm
- On crime novels: Karin Slaughter & Lisa Gardner... - Ken Waldron April 6, 2023, 10:40 pm
- Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald - SueC April 6, 2023, 11:42 pm
- Thanks. A tasty selection! The kind of backdrop that's taken for granted in most posts and articles - marknadim April 7, 2023, 5:30 am
- 100 Books to Read before the End - Fionn April 7, 2023, 8:08 am
- Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. nm - Jackie April 7, 2023, 9:41 am
- Re: Off topic - Recs for Novels pls: gripping ones, perhaps crime, perhaps that expose sthg of the - Jackie April 7, 2023, 9:49 pm
|
|