A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, but that might not be 300 pages, meh read it anyways.
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A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, but that might not be 300 pages, meh read it anyways.
No. Unlike the Russians and many of the English, Americans have always understood the concept of economy of expression. "Less is more" doesn't translate well into other European languages, even the Queen's English. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by emily655321
Sproutie, try Wright's Native Son (which should be fairly close to oyur page count), or Faulkner's Light in August
I'm currently reading Native Son... kinda wish I was in a class so I could figure out what the fuss is all about, 'cause so far I'm not finding it as good as I've heard it's supposed to be.
Ha! Thought you were going to get away with this one huh? :D
East of Eden is about 778 pages long and I highly disagree with you that his craft and talent as a writer is questionable. Yes a lot of his works deal with a very specific period of time and `homesteading' and `working the land', but I loved East of Eden. It's a re-telling of Cain and Abel set in California and he has a remarkable way of humanising the landscape and he deals with very classic themes and the historical content and spirituality of his characters is well-known.
To a God Unknown also deals with power struggles and good and evil, classic themes, even racism, which do border on the depressing at times but he has a very keen way of developing memorable characters without being disrespectful.
Travels with Charley and America and Americans are also highly acclaimed travel writing he did in the latter part of his life.
Historians and romantics have to appreciate something he's touched on. Someone not from North America can get an authentic sense of the settling of the west; the issues of displaced peoples; and struggle to live a meaningful life from his works.
Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, Cannery Row, The Winter of our Discontent, East of Eden, The Red Pony and possibly more of his novels were made into films, and for an American author, that's pretty high kudos as film has been such an important contemporary medium for artists as well.
Oh yeah, and for what it's worth, he won the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Quote:
Originally Posted by emily655321
forgot about to a god unknown. :) remember loving that in my teens, also cannery row. found grapes of wrath good, but not riveting. for some reason i think i read torilla flat, but am not sure. did like cannery row.
I've read The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, Travels With Charley, and the first half of Grapes of Wrath (one of the few books I've had no qualms about not finishing). Travels With Charley was interesting enough from a historical point of view, seeing what rural America used to be like. I just dislike his terse, macho writing style. Same as Hemingway.
Thomas Hardy's
I don't remember finding Travels with Charley and his other works full of machismo, what was it that triggered macho impression emily?
Isn't the Pearl rather short, around 100 pages?
Giles Goat Boy by john barth--challenging, but well worth it
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. There's so much "insight" and "hidden meanings" bundled up in that work you could probably write anything you wanted to about it and get by easily. Everyone else seems to. Ex: By wishing to have sex with his sister is Quinten desiring to crawl back in the womb or is he simply jealous of what he can never have? God! The crap reviewers have came up with from that book! I guess I should read it again (it's been about five years) and come up with something just as off-the-wall from it myself.
Yes, the Pearl's a shorty.Quote:
Originally Posted by simon
By "macho" I don't mean chauvinistic. Just his manner of speech -- remember a while back in one of the threads we discussed how men and women tend to speak differently? I guess I just don't relate to the very "male" way Steinbeck wrote; concise, terse, literalistic. I just don't enjoy it.
Re: The Sound and the Fury post
I think maybe Faulkner might have had families about the "sleeping with your sister" problem. That creeps up all of a sudden in Absalom, Absalom in that Henry forces his best friend on his sister because he obsessed with her virginity in that it doesn't, according to him, exist until its gone. and since he can't take it himself (which seems unfortunate for him) he brings in a man who is just as obsessed with
See! That's what I'm talkin' about with Faulkner--it's some pretty messed up ****. I guess that's what always attracted me to his writing, though. Absalom, Absalom is sounding more and more appealing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vronaqueen
WB, Black Flag. :)