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Zuckerman Unbound 10 reviews
Philip Roth
Vintage, 1995
Roth's version of Misery...
+ Fame and Pain
+ Roth's 'Zuckerman Trilogy:' Part 2.
+ More Zuckerman zaniness
+ The novelist as celebrity
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Waiting for the Barbarians (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) 76 reviews
J. M. Coetzee
Penguin (Non-Classics), 1999
Timeless and Timely
+ Miracles of Creation Too
The Nobel Prize committee has a history of honoring writers with a strong political or social message. WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS (1980), Coetzee's short, approachable, but devastating fable about the abuse of power, must have played a major part in their decision to award him the prize in 2003. ...
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South of No North: Stories of the Buried Life21 reviews
Charles Bukowski
Ecco, 2002
Nighthawks at the diner...
+ An excellent intro to Bukowski
+ Excellent
+ Good short stories
+ The Buried Life
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Suite Francaise374 reviews
Irene Nemirovsky
Vintage, 2007
One of the best, by far.
+ Unfinished masterpiece
+ Wanted more and more!! .such a tragedy she is gone...
+ Subtle, Powerful, Unfinished - An Astonishing Survival
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The Sirens of Titan156 reviews
Kurt Vonnegut
The Dial Press, 1998
My Favorite Vonnegut
+ Thats what I call Black Comedy
+ Very Good Book
+ The Meaning of Life....
+ amazing
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Giovanni's Room81 reviews
James Baldwin
Delta, 2000
Good Stuff Doesn't Age, It Matures
+ James!
+ Excellent
+ More people should know about this book
+ I agree with everthing good about this book
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Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)1036 reviews
Frank Herbert
Ace Trade, 2005
"The Sleeper Has Awakened!" ~ Science Fiction Or Prophetic Utterance?
+ A SciFi Masterpiece
+ I do not understand why Dune is so popular.
+ AMAZING BOOK!
+ Brings Back Memories of Old Sci-Fi Days
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Indignation44 reviews
Philip Roth
Houghton Mifflin, 2008
Lots of indignation here, but not from me
+ Haunting
+ The Butcher
+ Another Must-Read from Roth
+ Brief but Intense
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In the Country of Men24 reviews
Hisham Matar
Dial Press Trade Paperback, 2008
Exquisitely Devastating
+ Very well written!!
Exquisite writing. Captivating style. Utterly devastating mix of innocence, dread and pain. The most effective and haunting message for political freedom and human rights.
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Flights of Love: Stories13 reviews
Bernhard Schlink
Vintage, 2002
One of my absolute favorites
+ Love isnt'easy
Schlink seems to ask himself, "To what strange places might love drive a person?" His writing is distinctly un-American: poetic, deeply intimate, concise, and above all unashamed. The overall effect is provacative and thought provoking. Each story is unique and unattached to the next, but still ...
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Play It As It Lays: A Novel29 reviews
Joan Didion
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990
In the Thick of Nothingness [T]
+ New Hollywood Gomorrah
+ Memorable Book
I have now read two books by Didion - this and the Pulitzer Prize winning "The World of Magical Thinking." Each is devilishly depressing.
The similarities do not end there. The main character of this book, Maria Wyeth, physically resembles the author. Her roots are similar. And, she is an ...
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Howards End (Norton Critical Editions) 3 reviews
E. M. Forster
W. W. Norton, 1998
"Connect the prose and the passion...both will be exalted."
+ Homecomings.
+ Lessons in Connection
In this 1910 story of Edwardian England, Forster illustrates the conflicts between the superior attitudes of the aristocracy and a developing feeling of obligation toward the "lower" classes which World War I will soon bring into sharp relief. Margaret and Helen Schlegel are intellectual and ...
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The Things They Carried705 reviews
Tim O'Brien
Broadway, 1998
"Some dumb thing happens a long time ago and you can't ever forget it..."
+ O'Brien Cuts To the Core Of Our Fragile Lives
+ Perfection
+ Great read - Not what I expected
+ The ThingsThey Carried
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American Psycho 1078 reviews
Bret Easton Ellis
Vintage, 1991
Not for those with a weak stomach!
+ important, but...be warned
I had been meaning to read this book for a long time, and I must say that I am glad to have finally read it. There is horror and gore in this book, but the only purpose is not to make you sick. Pat Bateman exists in a society that most of us will never understand. His ability to keep up appearances ...
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The Professor of Desire8 reviews
Philip Roth
Vintage, 1994
An Intricate and Powerful Narrative
+ The Professor of Desire is Philip Roth at His Best
+ Coming of Sage
+ Finally, a Roth novel I like!
+ Rambling of Thoughts
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The Road1608 reviews
Cormac McCarthy
Knopf, 2006
A Road To Treasure
+ Carrying the Fire Through The Darkness
You know who they are. Those people that get upset when stories are told that aren't a sugar coated version of the world, stories that seem like they were written by authors who truly believe that ignoring cold, hard reality is the best medicine.
Cormac McCarthy is not one of those authors. At ...
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Factotum68 reviews
Charles Bukowski
Ecco, 2002
Life and work through the melancholy glasses of alcoholism
+ classic bukowski
+ A Tour of Bohemia
+ Great Tour of Bohemia
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Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel
Susanna Clarke; Portia Rosenberg
Bloomsbury USA, 2004
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The Adventures of Augie March (Penguin Classics)58 reviews
Saul Bellow
Penguin Classics, 2006
Excellent writing
+ This is Not Carl Sandburg's Chicago
+ Growing up in the depression
+ Inchoate Bellow tries to flex his genius (with mixed results)
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Tropic of Cancer161 reviews
Henry Miller
Grove Press, 1994
Know the background before you read this classic
+ Tropic of Cancer review
+ Original For Its Time--crude and rude
+ Fountain of youth
+ Puerile, vulgar, and tawdry.
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