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Post by jimmalone on Feb 11, 2020 10:24:09 GMT
In alphabetical order:
Javier Marias
Haruki Murakami Orhan Pamuk Carlos Ruiz Zafon Tad Williams
HM: Jonathan Franzen
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2020 0:07:42 GMT
1. Thomas Pynchon
*galaxy wide gap*
Don DeLillo
Cormac McCarthy
George R.R. Martin
Joyce Carol Oates/Michael Chabon/Jonathan Franzen
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Post by stephen on Feb 18, 2020 0:48:25 GMT
I have some bad news, man... |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2020 1:00:59 GMT
I have some bad news, man... Literally completely forgot he died. Wow. That sucks. |
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Post by DeepArcher on Feb 18, 2020 1:19:28 GMT
Coming to the disheartening realization that I mostly read books by dead people, so this is a bit hard...
There's at least a couple people who could be contenders here (Oates, Ishiguro to name a couple) that I just haven't read enough of to be able to put them on this list, so sticking with ones I'm a bit more comfortably familiar with...
Cormac McCarthy
Thomas Pynchon
George Saunders
Joy Williams
Michael Chabon
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2020 1:22:48 GMT
1. Judy Blume
2. Ian McEwan
3. S.E. Hinton
4. Dennis Lehane
5. Jeffrey Eugenides
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Post by jimmalone on Feb 18, 2020 16:13:35 GMT
Coming to the disheartening realization that I mostly read books by dead people, so this is a bit hard... Yeah, that was one of the reasons why I put this question to myself. |
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Post by jimmalone on Feb 18, 2020 16:16:23 GMT
Good to see two mentions of Michael Chabon. I don't have him quite up there, but so far I enjoyed all four of his books I've read.
Also it confirms to me I have to read something by Joyce Carol Oates, who has been named twice and is one of three authors named so far (the other two being Joy Williams and George Saunders, both of whom I don't think I've heard before) I haven't read anything from yet.
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Post by jimmalone on Feb 18, 2020 16:20:24 GMT
1. Judy Blume 2. Ian McEwan 3. S.E. Hinton 4. Dennis Lehane 5. Jeffrey Eugenides Good call on McEwan and Lehane.
"The Given Day" is a tremendous work. Always thought Affleck would have done better to adapt this than it's follow-up "Live by Night". Though obviously "Given Day" is much more complex, harder to adapt and would have also probably been less attracting to your average moviegoer.
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Post by ibbi on Feb 18, 2020 19:10:29 GMT
Cormac McCarthy is my favourite. I think the only other living authors I have read more than one book by are Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary (ONE HUNDRED AND THREE) and George Martin. I'll throw them in there and Michael Chabon, because The Yiddish Policemen's Union was magical.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2020 20:46:23 GMT
Cormac McCarthy is my favourite. I think the only other living authors I have read more than one book by are Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary (ONE HUNDRED AND THREE) and George Martin. I'll throw them in there and Michael Chabon, because The Yiddish Policemen's Union was magical. I'm pretty confident that more people in general would list Martin for this kinda thing if they felt like he was going to finish A Song of Ice and Fire. |
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Post by jimmalone on Feb 18, 2020 22:47:26 GMT
Cormac McCarthy is my favourite. I think the only other living authors I have read more than one book by are Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary (ONE HUNDRED AND THREE) and George Martin. I'll throw them in there and Michael Chabon, because The Yiddish Policemen's Union was magical. I'm pretty confident that more people in general would list Martin for this kinda thing if they felt like he was going to finish A Song of Ice and Fire. Not me. As a fantasy fan I was really hyped, when I picked it up first 15 years ago, but I think it is written pretty badly. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2020 23:42:45 GMT
I'm pretty confident that more people in general would list Martin for this kinda thing if they felt like he was going to finish A Song of Ice and Fire. Not me. As a fantasy fan I was really hyped, when I picked it up first 15 years ago, but I think it is written pretty badly. I'm far from a fantasy book expert but of the handful I've read, outside of Gene Wolfe I'm not sure I'd put any over old George. His prose is well below some of the others I listed, but his fantastic grasp on narrative and atmosphere makes for a really engaging, immersive read. Though I'm pretty sure we have extremely different taste generally anyway |
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Post by futuretrunks on Feb 19, 2020 1:06:41 GMT
Can't think of 5. Pynchon, then McCarthy. RIP Philip Roth, who was much better than Toni Morrison and I'm not afraid to say it. Sabbath's Theater/American Pastoral is the strongest novelist one-two punch since Henry James or Tolstoy.
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Post by jimmalone on Feb 19, 2020 8:51:21 GMT
Not me. As a fantasy fan I was really hyped, when I picked it up first 15 years ago, but I think it is written pretty badly. I'm far from a fantasy book expert but of the handful I've read, outside of Gene Wolfe I'm not sure I'd put any over old George. His prose is well below some of the others I listed, but his fantastic grasp on narrative and atmosphere makes for a really engaging, immersive read. Though I'm pretty sure we have extremely different taste generally anyway Well to each his own obviously. To me the world and characters of "Ice and Fire" sadly seemed, though certainly not without interesting elements (the political approach for example) were rather pale. In some parts that's kinda strange, when you think that Tad Williams, who I listed in my Top 5 above, was one of the biggest influences for Martin and I can see enough motives of "Memory, Sorrow, Thorn", Martin used as well (most of them are the ones I like most in "Ice and Fire" anyways), but enough others, compared with a rather poor style in my eyes, I find rather bland. Yeah, pretty sure of this myself. But at least we can share the appreciation for Philip Roth, Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chabon. Probably also Thomas Pynchon one day, if I have read more of him  . |
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 9, 2020 20:54:44 GMT
Not yet mentioned (I've read one masterful book from each) : Erik Larson (Devil in the White City) and Fleur Jaeggy (Sweet Days of Discipline, only 100pgs).
And there's Alexander Theroux (80y/o) who at his best mixes maximalist prose with encyclopedic asides and stinging satire like no one else. His work spans forms - he's written a lot of smaller curios, macabre fables (The Great Wheadle Tragedy), micro biographies (Edward Gorey), short fiction (The Psychiatrist), humor pieces (Class Menagerie his most Woody Allen esque), wise essays on his obsession with syntax (Metaphrastes); he's written a thousand page book on food phobias, another one on colors, travelogues (Estonia), poetry too. And there's his mega, messy masterpieces Darconville's Cat and Laura Walholic. If nothing else, he's suggested thru his career that he's a writer with too much to say, too many words at his finger tips, too much feeling to expel, too many ideas and knowledge crammed into his superbrain. “Cactaceous” is the word I like to use to describe him and his work - he’s an angry opinionated man, but a wizard too, and what you often get is an overblown, difficult brew of his ideas and his talent and you often have to push thru the tangents and lengthiness to find it. So.... to paraphrase the sign on my neighbor's lawn: Beware of this dog.
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