Doncha know it's Christmas time; here are a few books I recommend top off me head.
Obvious ones first.
Pretty much anything by The Greatest Living American Writer : Don DeLillo. Start with "Point Omega", say (it's not his most difficult one -which would probably be "The Names"). Don DeLillo has understood everything about the modern world. Everything. The man expresses whole theories and conveys whole scenes in one simple sentence, and can rightfully be elevated to the rank of Faulkner, no less.
Close second in the "greatest" stakes : Cormac mcCarthy - take on his "Blood Meridian", it will take your breath away.
No need to harp on about "Tristram Shandy", "Tom Jones", "American Psycho", "Catch 22", "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "Infinite Jest", "The Corrections"... I am a huge fan of Dick (no sniggering at the back, thank you) but can't think of one definitive novel of his. "Ubik", I suppose.
Louis de Bernieres "Notwithstanding" : utterly enchanting. The story of a little village with his "characters", budding / clandestine / unrequited love stories, mini-dramas and so on. It's just marvellous, echoes of "l'honneur perdu de Pedonzigues" "stray sod country" (see below), or "under milkwood".
Raymond Chandler "The Big Sleep". Quite simply one of the most talented writers I have ever come across - boy could this guy write!!! ...so much so that the actual plot hardly matters. A reader once collared him to moan about the fact that the murderer of one of the side-characters is never revealed; Chandler admitted he didn't know ((or care, for that matter)) either!
Patrick McCabe, let's say... "Call me the Breeze" maybe. Focken brilliant writer, so he is. Keeping the genius Irish tradition of "poetic realism" best embodied by the one-and-only Flann o'Brien (start with "The Third Policeman" rather than "At Swim Two Bird" because you will be lost) alive. McCabe pretty much writes the same old story in all of these books (basically ** **** **** *** **** and that's about it) but I don't mind one bit. Your man deeply cares for his characters, especially when he submits them to the worst possible tragedies.
John Steinbeck "Cannery Row". It is difficult to understate the sheer rightfulness of this man. A giant he was. "Cannery Row" (and his sequel "Sweet Thursday" -hurrah!!) is a comedy - meaning it is not a chore to read like "The Grapes of Wrath" or "Of Mice and Men" (-English teacher's voice: you what?????). Let's say it is not a hundred miles away from the world of Prevert or Queneau : it wears its heart on its sleeve and will make you laugh just as much as it will make you cry. I remember thinking at the time "oh God, I can't face the prospect of it coming to an end soon..."
Another of my heroes: Kurt Vonnegut. Let's say... "God bless you, mr. Goldwater" but I just as easily offer "Galapagos" as a taster. A wonderful wonderful wonderful man. Vonnegut throws everything but the kitchen sink at the page. And then lays on another layer - just because there are no rules. A bona fide humanist and a great example of the power of imagination. (cf. JG Ballard in the UK. ... Sort of.)
I do hope that you have heard of "A Prayer For Owen Meany" by John Irving. You haven't? Boy oh boy, are you in for a treat. Then move on to "Garp" and brace yourself for "The Cider House Rules" which has to be his "best" (if we have to offer such perfunctory criteria). Warning : handkerchief at the ready! Irving -a self-proclaimed fan of Dickens- doesn't do things by half.
Douglas Coupland "Hey, Nostradamus!" : the answer to Gus van Sant's "Elephant". Or the recent "Worst. Person. Ever" which is very different : a comedy. Yet another of these writers I am actively engaged in reading everything he has produced.
Alice Sebold "The Lovely Bones" - Fantastically gifted writer, somewhat reminiscent of DeLillo's powers of evocation, there can be no higher praise. Please please please produce some more!
Honourable mentions :
Will Self "The Book of Dave" - Toni Morrison "Beloved" - Irvine Welsh any of his, really ! a veritable Molotov cocktail of words is our Irvine, let's choose "Porno" for the craic of it - Paul Auster once again, hard to single one out, maybe one from his early trilogy or "In The Country of Lost Things"? - Russell Banks "The Rule of Bones" - Thomas Coraghessan Boyle "Drop City" (file under: read every novel he has written, he has never disappointed me) - etc. etc. etc.
Fill yer boots!
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