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Re: Reading Suggestions: Digest #3 (fwd)
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From: Mark Bennett <mab@straussandasher.com>
I have read, and enjoyed, "The Conversions." I particularly enjoyed Grent
Wayl's exploding coffin, which rained rose petals upon the mourners
attending his funeral. I've also read "Cigarettes," but didn't enjoy it as
much. I recall reading somewhere ("Selected Letters"?) that VN read, and
loathed, "The Conversions." So it goes . . .
-----Original Message-----
From: MalignD@aol.com
Reading Kundera is like being stuck in a locked room with a bore.
________________________________________________________
From: Jesse Huisken <jesse_huisken@sympatico.ca>
I think that William Gaddis's The Recognitions would be of interest to
anyone who has enjoyed Ulysses and Pynchon's larger books. He's more
consistent in tone than Pynchon, and his two big novels are more reined in
and coherent as fictional worlds, but he's equally devastating in his
pessimism and his flights of imagination are some of the most brilliant in
fiction ever. I'd also highly recommend the fiction of Harry Mathews, who's
still kicking out brilliant books every now and then. Mathews will appeal
very much to anyone who has enjoyed Nabokov and the works of Raymond
Roussel. He's prose style and self conscious use of fantasy, puzzles and
parody are remarkable, and his style will seem very familiar to readers of
later Nobokov (LATH, Transparent Things, ADA). His first three novels The
Sinking of the Odradek Stadium, Tlooth, The Conversions are my favorites,
but Cigarettes is the most masterly as a work of fiction (as opposed to
literary experimentation). I'd like to know if anyone else has read Harry
Mathews on this site. I would be surprised if no one has.
-- Jesse
I have read, and enjoyed, "The Conversions." I particularly enjoyed Grent
Wayl's exploding coffin, which rained rose petals upon the mourners
attending his funeral. I've also read "Cigarettes," but didn't enjoy it as
much. I recall reading somewhere ("Selected Letters"?) that VN read, and
loathed, "The Conversions." So it goes . . .
-----Original Message-----
From: MalignD@aol.com
Reading Kundera is like being stuck in a locked room with a bore.
________________________________________________________
From: Jesse Huisken <jesse_huisken@sympatico.ca>
I think that William Gaddis's The Recognitions would be of interest to
anyone who has enjoyed Ulysses and Pynchon's larger books. He's more
consistent in tone than Pynchon, and his two big novels are more reined in
and coherent as fictional worlds, but he's equally devastating in his
pessimism and his flights of imagination are some of the most brilliant in
fiction ever. I'd also highly recommend the fiction of Harry Mathews, who's
still kicking out brilliant books every now and then. Mathews will appeal
very much to anyone who has enjoyed Nabokov and the works of Raymond
Roussel. He's prose style and self conscious use of fantasy, puzzles and
parody are remarkable, and his style will seem very familiar to readers of
later Nobokov (LATH, Transparent Things, ADA). His first three novels The
Sinking of the Odradek Stadium, Tlooth, The Conversions are my favorites,
but Cigarettes is the most masterly as a work of fiction (as opposed to
literary experimentation). I'd like to know if anyone else has read Harry
Mathews on this site. I would be surprised if no one has.
-- Jesse