Suggest an obscure but good book

[Kyriakos]

Maybe it is a good idea, since the lesser-known titles are hard to discover on one's own :)

I will start with this one, which is local but i am not proposing it due to some faulty reason, i actually think it is the greatest novel in this language in recent aeons:

http://www.nybooks.com/media/images/productimage-picture-the-murderess-86_jpg_180x1008_q85.jpg

It is The Murderess, by Alexandros Papadiamantis, who died in the beginning of the 20th century.

If you only ever read one Greek novel, this is the one you should read (in fact i doubt i have read any other myself...). A great story, by a very notable novelist, who translated both Dostoevsky and H.G.Wells in this language :)

[Wittgenstein]

This is a tremendous recommendation and I am going to be sure to read it. Thank you very much. I will come back with my thoughts after I finish it!

[The Highwayman]

The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. I recommended it to my English professor for an independent study a few years ago, and he approved it. I enjoyed it and was drawn to it because it reminded me of my favorite show, LOST. I recommend it!

[Charles Darnay]

Im going to recommend (particularly if you want a good summer read) The Emperor of Paris: I don't think it received any notable press outside of Canada (and even within). It is a very quick read, but it is one of those "go in without knowing anything about it and it will really surprise you" novels.

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Emperor-Paris-CS-Richardson/dp/0385670907

[MorpheusSandman]

I remember really enjoying the prose style and atmosphere of Ian R. MacLeod's The Light Ages (http://www.amazon.com/Light-Ages-Ian-R-MacLeod/dp/B000H2M9PU):
http://www.markbernstein.org/covers/TheLightAges.jpg

[WICKES]

I'm not sure if it would be classed as obscure, but I'll plug Chrome Yellow by Aldous Huxley- my favourite novel of all time. It is beautifully written, in a polished, elegant, witty, urbane style, it's very, very funny and breathtakingly imaginative. The thought that he was in this 20s when he wrote it makes me want to curl up and die from feelings of jealousy and inferiority. It is dazzling.

[kev67]

I am not sure how obscure George MacDonald Fraser is. I think he's underrated. I have read most of his fiction and semi-fiction. He wrote in a variety of writing styles. The Candlemass Road was written in an usual style for him.

[TheFifthElement]

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt - the funniest, cleverest and best book I've read in a lifetime.

[Tomwk]

Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz. I shall just say that the author was Polish, that the title is untranslatable (a neologism of his coinage), and that if you truly relish Kafka (by that I mean beyond the bug hiding under a table and a repressive State clichés) you will later thank me for making Gombrowicz known to you.

[Scheherazade]

When we go along with the adjective "obscure", of course, we are taking some risks. I feel as soon as I suggest a book on a Forum like this, someone is likely to step up and say that they are familiar with the author and their work. However, I could never resist the temptation to give advice and make recommendations so here it goes:

A Good Smell from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler.

It is a collection of stories (1992 Pulitzer winner), concentrating on the lives of Vietnamese immigrants in the USA.

[Tomwk]

When I mentioned 'my' obscure book I also thought of bringing this up, since if a title goes under the plough of obscure or not is quite a partial matter. In this very thread there is an example of that: Highwayman mentioned La invención de Morel, which for me (being a Spanish speaker and even more an Argentine, like Bioy Casares) is a well-known and unsurprising (novella?). With my personal example I intend to show how much bias can go into making a list of 'obscure', 'rare' or 'unknown' works (or probably any labelling labour in literature).

I think we could lead this thread to a more interesting discussion if we tried to focus on those works neglected by the sometimes useful and sometimes tyrannical literary canon.

(BTW, this is the first thread in which I intervene; I have begun an Introduction thread of my own, but I'm afraid it's just as forlorn as the rest of the section.)

[loe]

If you only ever read one Greek novel, this is the one you should read...
I always thought that this should be "Alexis Sorbas". ;)

I recommend "The Other Side" by Alfred Kubin who is more known as an illustrator of rather surreal subjects, but wrote with The Other Side an excellent novel, at least in my opinion.

[Kyriakos]

Well, the author of that zorba novel is (in my view) not just incredibly overrated, but in reality unreadable in the original greek. He just uses cretan idiomatic expressions all the time, and his form of the language is very lowly and peasant-like. I guess this is not at all obvious in the english translation, but in greek it is painfully so. I do not plan to read any work of his :/

Papadiamantis, on the other hand, is by far the best Greek novelist of recent centuries. The Murderess made a deep impression on me when i first read it, and it still does. Even if he had just written this work, he still would have been immortal in the world of literature. The far more known internationally Greek poet Constantine Cavafy had spoken often in admiration of Papadiamantis :)

[Scheherazade]

I think we could lead this thread to a more interesting discussion if we tried to focus on those works neglected by the sometimes useful and sometimes tyrannical literary canon.That is always a source of great discussion. Why don't you start a thread?


(BTW, this is the first thread in which I intervene; I have begun an Introduction thread of my own, but I'm afraid it's just as forlorn as the rest of the section.)Glad you have decided to participate, Tomwk. Welcome to the Forum :)

[Jassy Melson]

Portrait of Jeannie by Robert Nathan. It is the best novel I have read dealing with the inner and outer struggles of an unknown and impoverished artist.

[wordeater]

"Regarding Roderer" ("Acerca Roderer") by the Argentine writer Guillermo Martínez.

[Jive One]

I really enjoyed Winter's Tale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter's_Tale_(novel)) by Mark Helprin.

[Pen Name]

If you only ever read one Greek novel, this is the one you should read (in fact i doubt i have read any other myself...). A great story, by a very notable novelist, who translated both Dostoevsky and H.G.Wells in this language :)

Personally I would recommend 'Homer' and 'The Odyssey', although I suspect you meant 'Modern' Greek Novel and I am being pedantic.

For my Obscure recommend, 'The Moving Toyshop' by Edmund Crispin is a thoroughly good read, very literate without being difficult.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Toyshop-Edmund-Crispin/dp/009950622X

[Kyriakos]

^Yes, i would refer to the Odyssey as an epic poem, not a novel :) Homer is above everything else, at least in my view which is why my signature has one of his verses.

[Paulclem]

Infernal Devices by KW Jeter. It is described as a mad Victorian fantasy and is part of the steampunk canon, (though I wasn't aware of it when I read it).

Mad it is - there are half fish prostitutes - but it is well written in the Victorian idiom.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Infernal-Devices-Angry-Robot-Jeter/dp/0857660969/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374786731&sr=1-1&keywords=jeter+infernal+devices

[TheFifthElement]

Infernal Devices by KW Jeter. It is described as a mad Victorian fantasy and is part of the steampunk canon, (though I wasn't aware of it when I read it).

Mad it is - there are half fish prostitutes - but it is well written in the Victorian idiom.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Infernal-Devices-Angry-Robot-Jeter/dp/0857660969/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374786731&sr=1-1&keywords=jeter+infernal+devices
Thanks Paulclem :D I just ordered this book a couple of days ago to take as one of my holidays reads when we're away in Whitby (I'm going to explore a little steampunk and classic gothic horror...when in Whitby & all that) and your recommendation has given me heart.

Was also thinking about Perdido Street Station - knowing you're a Mieville fan, what are your thoughts?

[Paulclem]

Thanks Paulclem :D I just ordered this book a couple of days ago to take as one of my holidays reads when we're away in Whitby (I'm going to explore a little steampunk and classic gothic horror...when in Whitby & all that) and your recommendation has given me heart.

Was also thinking about Perdido Street Station - knowing you're a Mieville fan, what are your thoughts?

Hi Fifth,

Yes i like Mieville's stuff. I've just started King Rat. Perdido Street Station was the first book I read of Mieville's, and I was somewhat surprised by the flood of ideas that gushes from the book. I really enjoyed it - he writes very well about cities and evokes the seedier areas very well. I reckon it is a book with several stories within it, and so it does ramble along a bit, but there are loads of ideas which kept me interested right to the end. It think it's part of the New Weird as well - it has so many elements to it - parallel universe/ magic/ fantasy/ thriller/ sci fi - that it's is hard to classify, but I think that's a strength.

if you like this one, the The Iron Council I found to be even better. It starts slower, but is a great read.

[qimissung]

The Broken Citadel by Joyce Ballou Gregorian

Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge-it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1930.

[Justin Dielmann]

Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz. I shall just say that the author was Polish, that the title is untranslatable (a neologism of his coinage), and that if you truly relish Kafka (by that I mean beyond the bug hiding under a table and a repressive State clichés) you will later thank me for making Gombrowicz known to you.

I would like to not only second this recommendation, but also say that his diaries are brilliant. If you want a good second opinion of Borges from an interesting perspective they are well worth the read. Gombrowicz will honestly one day be remembered as the greatest author of his generation.

[Jackson Richardson]

For my Obscure recommend, 'The Moving Toyshop' by Edmund Crispin is a thoroughly good read, very literate without being difficult.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Toyshop-Edmund-Crispin/dp/009950622X

And jolly good it is too. As are Crispin's other whodunnits.

[Panglossian]

The quicksilver and quirky THE FLIGHT OF ICARUS - Raymond Queneau . . .

[ennison]

The La Farge novel mentioned above does sound like the kind of text the thread is looking for. Good enough to win a prize but now relatively forgotten. The same criterion could be used to "resurrect" lots of temporarily forgotten texts. I know virtually nothing about La Farge beyond that he was an anthropologist and (I may be making this up) he was the father or stepfather of Peter La Farge who was a friend of Johnny Cash and who penned the song "Drunken Ira Hayes". If I was to randomly suggest a "forgotten" text I might select "Joseph and His Brothers" by Freeman or "Hermanos" by Herrick or "Front Line Stalingrad" by Nekrasov.