Obscure books you enjoyed?

[Veho]

Hello all,

I must be experiencing a strange reading mood or something because all the books that are discussed and listed to death just aren't able to pique my interest at the moment (I'm currently reading Dickens and we dont get on so I'm blaming him). Anyway, the other day I read a post on the forum by gimissung that mentioned a book called Happy All the Time as one of their favourites, that I'd never even heard about. I looked it up and it sounds really good and will be the next book I read, but I would never have know about it if I'd not read the post.

So, I thought it would be interesting to see if other people have any favourite books (classic or otherwise) that aren't discussed all the time and are actually rather obscure. It would be good to tell us why you liked them as well and what they're about. Who knows, it might give us all some new works to investigate!

[Des Essientes]

I have three suggestions that are all relatively obscure but absolutely first rate books.

The World Of Yesterday, An Autobiogaphy by Stefan Zweig- This book takes one into the wierd milieu of Vienna in the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a place wherein men weren't respected until they were aged and young professionals grew huge beards to look as old as possible and a place where university students were possessed of the weird vestigial medieval right to challenge any gentlemen they wished to a sword duel to the death without any penalty from the law.
The Issa Valley by Czeslaw Milosz- The only novel ever written by the Nobel Prize winning poet takes one to the obscure land of Lithuania before, during, and after the First World War. Every page in this novel causes resonance in one's heart, as only a great poet's prose can. I read a copy from my university library and after I told my sister about its merits she had an extremely difficult time locating a copy to purchase. She eventually found one after looking for some time, so good luck trying to read this classic if you are inclined to do so.
A Voyage To Arcturus by David Lindsay- This classic work of fantastic science fiction is not only relatively obscure it is really really weird. If you read it you will never forget it. It is a Schopenhaurean allegory full of strangeness that will trip you out like you've taken LSD and it is thankfully in the public domain and so you can begin reading it right now at Project Gutenberg or listening to it read to you at Librivox.com.

[Jason Cardona]

"Notebook of a Return to my Native Land." A book length poem by Martinique poet Aimé Césaire. Read it in a class on Afro-Caribbean literature. One of the great poems of the 20th century IMO. Césaire was friends with Andre Breton and his poetry is surrealistic. He had a vast vocabulary.

[Jair]

Stefan Zweig is amazing. I read all his works. I liked Sternstunden der Menschheit the best.

I also enjoyed Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed. Very interesting, but not that obscure.

Do esoteric theological texts count?

[Charles Darnay]

It's funny, looking over the novel sections of my bookshelves, the books currently displayed fall into two main categories:

1. Books by authors who anyone not under a rock would at least have some knowledge of

2. Canadian lit (because I find that with the exception of Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, Can. lit doesn't travel far beyond our borders).

So here are some of my favourites right now from the second category:

Deptford Trilogy - Roberson Davies: Davies has been mentioned around these parts, but not to death. His prose is fantastic, his characters well developed - and in this particular trilogy the way he plays with Jungian philosophy is amazing. Admittedly, the first book in the trilogy, Fifth Business is the slowest of the three (despite this, it has become the most famous of is works), but as a whole, it is a worthwhile read.

Half-Blood Blues: Winner of Canada's Giller Prize this year, it is a story of four musicians living in Europe during the early years of WWII. Once again, amazing prose, and a fantastic plot.

[Artorius]

I have to agree that Stefan Zweig is a great, great writer. The World of Yesterday is one of my favourite books and for me it stands heads above other memoirs that I've read. It's a mystery how he's been neglected in the English-speaking countries.

[Veho]

Thanks for all your contributions. I've not heard of any of them and it's great to learn about new authors and their works. I'm going to look into everyone's suggestions to see what they're about. Des Essientes, they're some really interesting sounding titles you mentioned. Everyone else too!

I wonder why Canadian authors don't get as much as a look in as other nations, perhaps? Ashamedly, as you predicted Charles D, I've only heard of those two you mentioned and only read Atwood.


Do esoteric theological texts count?

Oh yeah, I don't see why not! Everything goes, so long as it's obscure.

Keep them coming, people. :)

[Svidrigailov]

I'm too much in thrall to the literary press to unearth books for myself, but Fireproof is one lesser-known book I'd recommend unreservedly.

It details sectarian reprisals in India in stomach turning detail, blurring the line between reality and nightmare at the point where conscious experience can't lucidly comprehend barbaric acts. Raj Kamal Jha knows how to deeply disturb, but his light touch can guide you through passages of suffering that would be almost unendurable in other hands.

[Darcy88]

I stick to the classics. I figure I have so many of the greatest great books to read I should just stick to that track. That is unless a friend or someone recommends a book I've never heard of that they really like.

[RicMisc]

I'm not sure wether you've ever read any Dutch literature, but 'The Discover of Heaven' by Harry Mulisch is considered to be one of the greatest Dutch works ever so that might be worth a read. It's not really obscure here, but I don't think it's as well known abroad. I can't stress you enough to really look into it, because I really liked the book (and I'm no fan of Dutch lit).

[Svidrigailov]

I'm not sure wether you've ever read any Dutch literature, but 'The Discover of Heaven' by Harry Mulisch is considered to be one of the greatest Dutch works ever so that might be worth a read. It's not really obscure here, but I don't think it's as well known abroad. I can't stress you enough to really look into it, because I really liked the book (and I'm no fan of Dutch lit).

I have The Assault in a book pile, but I've never heard of The Discovery of Heaven; I trust it doesn't matter which one I start with.

[Veho]

Thank you RicMisc and Svidrigailov. The Discovery of Heaven sounds very unusual -it's now in my wish list. Fireproof sounds very disturbing from what I read about it - thanks for recommending it.

[Jair]

Oh yeah, I don't see why not! Everything goes, so long as it's obscure.

Keep them coming, people. :)

I've read the majority of Jewish theological discourse starting from the Mishnah and Talmud and concluding with the Shulchan Aruch. This includes philosophy, laws, and kabbalah. The most esoteric thing I've read is probably Quæstiones (sheiltot), by Rav Achai Gaon.

[tylerdf]

Hating Olivia by Mark SaFranko. It instantly joined my all time favorites.

[Bill 42]

I'll mention a couple more obscure Canadian books. I was introduced to them when I read the winners of the Governor General's Award for Fiction (Canadian version of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction).

Three Came to Ville Marie by Alan Sullivan. This book is about three people who came to Canada when it was being stolen from the indigenous population. It explores the personalities that were successful in the old world and a failure in the new world, and vise versa. The only place I've seen this book available is manybooks.net (http://manybooks.net/titles/sullivanalanother08sullivan-three-00-t.html). I downloaded the large print PDF version and took it to Kinko's and had them print a book on 8.5 by 5.5 inch paper.

The Fall of a Titan by Igor Gouzenko. Igor Gouzenko was working for the Soviet embassy in Canada just after second World War II. He defected to Canada, bringing along extensive lists of Soviet spies in the West, thereby starting the Cold War. The West were aware that there were Soviet spies, but they had no idea of the extensive nature of the spy network. He later wrote a novel about becoming a powerhouse in the Soviet government, and then, well, moving on to not being a powerhouse in the Soviet government. The Fall of a Titan is probably my favorite Canadian book. Used copies are available here and there, but I think it's been out of print for at least a couple of decades unfortunately.


Oh, and Half-Blood Blues, although an excellent book, isn't all that obscure. It was short-listed for the Man Booker award (Britain and British Commonwealth). Another Canadian book short-listed at the same time for the same award was The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. I really enjoyed both books but I prefer the latter.

[TheChilly]

Hello all,

I must be experiencing a strange reading mood or something because all the books that are discussed and listed to death just aren't able to pique my interest at the moment (I'm currently reading Dickens and we dont get on so I'm blaming him). Anyway, the other day I read a post on the forum by gimissung that mentioned a book called Happy All the Time as one of their favourites, that I'd never even heard about. I looked it up and it sounds really good and will be the next book I read, but I would never have know about it if I'd not read the post.

So, I thought it would be interesting to see if other people have any favourite books (classic or otherwise) that aren't discussed all the time and are actually rather obscure. It would be good to tell us why you liked them as well and what they're about. Who knows, it might give us all some new works to investigate!

Umberto Eco's "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana" was one of the rare few "obscure" books I picked up... and it has some stunning prose and so many references to previous works of art/film, especially in its concluding pages.

It was a bit of a challenging read, though.

I still pick "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" (by Marisha Pessl) as my top favorite.

[Charles Darnay]

Oh, and Half-Blood Blues, although an excellent book, isn't all that obscure. It was short-listed for the Man Booker award (Britain and British Commonwealth). Another Canadian book short-listed at the same time for the same award was The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. I really enjoyed both books but I prefer the latter.

Despite its multiple nominations, I have encountered many people (both in an out of Canada) who have not heard of Half-Blood Blues, so I thought I would put it out there.

Sisters Brothers was alright: unfortunately it was hyped up so much by the time I gout to it, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. The only character I really cared about was Tub.

[msmoonlite]

The Turquoise by Anya Seton.

[RetsixArp]

...A Voyage To Arcturus by David Lindsay- ...I've tried reading this on several occasions but've never got more than a third of the way thru; I don't know why: something else got my attention. I'll pick it up again.

Literary scholar Harold Bloom thinks this is one of the greatest books ever & even prompted him to write a sequel---his only work of fiction---called A Flight to Lucifer.

My favorite obscure book is Savannah Blue, by William Harrison---probably best known outside English departments as the author of Rollerball Murder & his screenplay for the 1975 movie version. "Blue" came out in 1980 or '81: story of a multi-agency U.S. task force assigned to hunt down someone killing Am. businessmen in Africa. The task force fails, but the 2 guys that headed it---an occasional contract agent & a chubby, ambitious bureaucrat---hatch a plan to lure the killer to the States. It's a literate thriller, & I try to read it once a year.

[dfloyd]

Confessions of a Justified Sinner - James Hogg
The Horse's Mouth - Joyce Cary
Black Mischief - Evelyn Waugh
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel spark
Memoirs of a Georgian Rake - William Hickey
Ralph Rashleigh - James Tucker
The Great Impersonation - E. Philps Oppenheim

Perhaps not obscure to some, but not on the lierary path of academia.

[cafolini]

I don't remember the title bu it had a dark cover.

[cacian]

what does an obscure book mean?

[Buh4Bee]

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. On the back cover the novel is heralded as one of the neglected books of the 20th Century. I'm not quite finished, but it is well written and pretty engaging. Bowles does a great job creating multi-dimensional characters.

[McGrain]

Read Gould's Book of Fish. There was a crazy fuss about it at the time it was released, but that seems to have been dialled down in the past decade or so, and it is becoming something of a forgotten classic.

I call it a masterpiece and feel comfortable doing so.

http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166585881l/14236.jpg

Oh! So does The Times. Now I feel even more comfortable.

[rootinghog]

I'm currently about 2/3 of the way through Sergio de la Pava's A Naked Singularity, and I'm really blown away by it so far. From what I can tell, the book was originally published in 2008, but it was just re-printed this May, meaning that I could get it at the library. It's unclear to me why it's so obscure-- think a more accessible (and slightly lighter) Infinite Jest concerning the criminal court system. As far as I can tell, the author doesn't even have a Wikipedia page (which I think qualifies him as obscure in this day and age), and his author bio simply reads: "Sergio de la Pava is a writer who does not live in Brooklyn". Anyways, I'd highly recommend it for any fans of David Foster Wallace or maybe Gaddis.

[Gyges]

The first book I read by Vladimir Nabokov was Invitation to a Beheading. I'm not sure if this counts as obscure because he's so well known, but I don't think I've come across anyone else who has read it since then. It's beautiful, bizarre, meaningful and full of shadows of his later works. So, Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov - worth a read!

[tonywalt]

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander

It is a novel about he murder of the Romanov family from the perspective of a kitchen boy working for them. It's a very different angle for historical fiction. Great Book.

Tony

[nancybella]

Des Essienties, thanks for pointing out Voyage to Arcturus and where to read it. I read the first chapter there. That was a good scene, very imaginative.

I think this is a valuable thread. I can't think of an obscure or generally unknown book off the top of my head, and that feels very wrong. I only know the classics, the celebrities so to speak. Which is all wrong. That means a person hasn't adventured; has only stayed on the main road.

This thread shows me that very clearly. Taking true pleasure in reading, I'd have a whole host of little known books off the top of my head, as all such people who take pleasure in reading would, as you all do here.

Hmm, I've to get my posterior in gear. A little known book...a little known book...I know I've read some, I just can't remember. Oh yes, Tales out of School, by Clanwilliam, which is the pseudonym of an Irish writer.

He writes very ironically about...I forget that as well, it's years since I've read it; it was on my Dad's bookshelf. But I remember enjoying it. Probably written in the 1940s or 50s. A real ironical man of letters, not easily fazed.

Oh, I think it's more to one's credit to have read more obscure books than classics, just to show you've blazed your own reading trail, than followed one. Maybe that's overstating it, but I have a point.

[RWalsh]

I'm not sure how obscure this is, but Cesar Aira's How I Became A Nun and The Literary Conference are two that I just recently read. Short reads, but his writing style is great.

[nancybella]

Gyges, I remember reading and liking Invitation to a Beheading about five years ago. I had to look up wikipedia there to remind myself that it was about a man in a cell.

I remember being really impressed. I'd have to read that again. Darn! I just forget. Ah well, that's the way. The classics haunt you even when you've read them because, as the years pass, you forget them, yet you still see them on the shelves and people talking about them as if they were new because, of course, they ARE new to the next generation coming round to them.

So what do you do? Spend your life going round in circles re-reading the time-consuming classics?? I guess so. There are worse things. I mean, they are great books. :-)

[Kyriakos]

I am not sure i have really enjoyed actual obscure books. Perhaps parts of The Chants of Maldoror (which is quasi-obscure), but not the entire book.

[kev67]

My step-mother was telling me recently that although she doesn't like stories that couldn't happen, she was once enjoying a book in which a comet hit the Earth and a group of people were trying to survive the aftermath, but that she lost it before reaching the end. I recognized that book as Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It must have been over twenty years ago she was reading that. I said I'd get her a copy, but forgot till this afternoon. When I checked on Amazon there were only kindle and 2nd hand copies available, so it looks like it's gone out of print. That must mean it's quite obscure.

Actually, I think Niven and Pournelle were a really good writing team. Individually I didn't think either of them were great. I found Niven's books were more enjoyable, easy to read (except for the science), but a bit light and sometimes verging on silly. I only read one of Pournelle's books and I found it rather stodgy and more about re-creating history than the future. Together however, they really seemed to click. Incidentally, I gather this pair also used to write speeches for Ronald Reagan for the Star Wars project.

I remember being surprised when another of my parents' friends enjoyed reading another of their books called Legacy of Heorot (which had a third author). I didn't think he was the type to like science fiction.

My personal favourite book by this pair was The Mote in God's Eye. This is a story about a first contact with super intelligent aliens stuck in a cycle of continuous population explosions and crashes.

[kev67]

I'm not sure wether you've ever read any Dutch literature, but 'The Discover of Heaven' by Harry Mulisch is considered to be one of the greatest Dutch works ever so that might be worth a read. It's not really obscure here, but I don't think it's as well known abroad. I can't stress you enough to really look into it, because I really liked the book (and I'm no fan of Dutch lit).

Talking about Dutch writers, there is a book titled 'The Rider' by an author called Tim Krabbe. It is not that obscure among cyclists because it is often cited as the best book on cycling. It is the only fictional book about cycling I can think of. It's about an amateur cycle race that takes place in the 70s. It reads almost in real time.

[Bill 42]

I recognized that book as Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It must have been over twenty years ago she was reading that. I said I'd get her a copy, but forgot till this afternoon. When I checked on Amazon there were only kindle and 2nd hand copies available, so it looks like it's gone out of print. That must mean it's quite obscure.

It's available from www.bookdepository.com.

[kev67]

It's available from www.bookdepository.com.

Thanks for the link.

[ennison]

Nobody answered Cacian's question. Probably "obscure" here means a book / author the next poster has never heard of. "Moby Dick" was once an "obscure" book. Then it was resurrected into fame.

[ennison]

I tend to read a lot of what could easily fall into the category of "Obscure". Here's three "The Channering Worm" "A Child Possessed" "The Green Isle of the Great Deep"

[ennison]

Another definition of an obscure text might simply be a text that has been out of print for over a decade. So writers like Helene du Coudray, G E Trevelyan, Frank Sargeson, David Stacton etc could be considered obscure because most of their output is or has been out of print for some time Yet these are significant writers with good books to their name. The same applies to non- fiction - perhaps more so.