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Could be works or authors. I've read:
To Kill A Mockingbird (didn't like it much)
All of Scott Fitzgerald's novels except Tender is The Night
Tried to read The Old Man and The Sea and Farewell To Arms, but gave up.
Love Tennessee Williams' plays
Love A View From The Bridge and The Crucible, like All My Sons and Death of A Salesman.
Liked some of Sam Shepard's plays: Fool for Love and True West
Of Mice and Men
And I think that's it...
William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury, Light In August.
Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio
Henry James: The Ambassodors
Hemingway's short stories.
Ralph Elison: Invisible Man
Kut Vonnegut: Slaughter-House Five
Eugene O'Neil: A Long Days Journey Into Night
Truman Capote: In Cold Blood
AnnTyler: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Toni Morrison: Beloved
Edith Wharton: Ethan Frome
There are others of course. I'm only giving you ones I have personally read and think highly of.
I'd recommend Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, in addition to the two other works you listed. Was there any particular reason you couldn't make it through those two? I've never heard anyone complain about Hemingway's style being too difficult or arduous - is it just plain boring reading to you?
I'd also recommend Faulkner's major 4 novels: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom!
As far as poetics go:
Wallace Steven's Harmonium
T.S. Eliot's entire oeuvre
Ezra Pound's Cantos
Unfortunately my knowledge falters shortly after the 50's
I really hate books, but I loved The Old Man and the Sea. I don't like Hemingway's writing style, but that story is just...a great story.
Herzog - Saul Bellow
Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
V - Thomas Pynchon
Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov
Where i'm calling from - Raymond Carver
Suttree - Cormac McCarthy
White Noise - Don DeLillo
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
Independence Day - Richard Ford
Does this mean that you got around to Long Days Journey? What did you think?Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
In Cold Blood is what I tried to nominate for the thriller poll, but I got it wrong.
I'm going to give Faulkner another try this summer. I love his writing. The subject mater just hits me in the wrong spot.
Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men
To me Long Days Journey is one of the greatest of modern drama. Perhaps the best American play of the 20th century.Quote:
Originally Posted by motherhubbard
Faulkner is hard and you told me how it hurts to read him. Yeah I hear you. Perhaps Light In August might not hit you as hard.
Oh, definitely give Tender is the Night a chance - a beautifully written novel that did a lot more for me than The Great Gatsby, and infinitely more philosophical in terms of human nature and interaction.Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
Not that I question your tastes, kelby_lake, but I felt surprised to read that you did not care much for Hemingway, as I have always found him and Fitzgerald very comparable; they even made good friends in their lifetimes, amid the Lost Generation. To each their own, as both have their differences.
I have always liked Steinbeck, (Except The Grapes of Wrath)
Saul Bellow
Walker Percy
I haven’t read Faulkner yet, but I recently purchased “As I lay Dying” and “The Sound and the Fury”
Hemingway does nothing for me though.
Thanks for the tip Mono, I will have to check out “Tender is the night”. I read the “Great Gatsby” and wasn’t impressed but it sounds like this one may be different.
The Sound and the Fury is Faulkner's most accessible major novel, with Absalom, Absalom! occupying the opposite pole.
I have recently read Tender is the Night and would agree that it appears to be more philosophical than The Great Gatsby but the operative wortd is "appears." Gatsby is by far the better novel.Quote:
Originally Posted by mono
Am intending to read The Sound and Fury- Faulkner is top of my list as I've read none.Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
Love Long Day's Journey Into Night and agree with Virgil. It's the rawest, most beautifully honest piece of writing I've ever read.
I think short stories might be the way to go for me Hemingway-wise. I want to like him, and when I read short passages of his, I think they're great- especially realism of the dialogue- but it's very 'This is exactly what happened; I'm not going to dress it up' style, which I find hard to get into.
Read and loved Lolita.
Not keen on Kerouac, as in what he writes about.
Oh, I like books about alcoholics :)
When I write my autobiography, I'll send you a copy.Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
The Aluminum Man by G. C. Edmondson is one of the best novels about an alcoholic even written and is one of the obscure gems of 20th century American fiction.Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake