Jill Scott reading. I wrote two days ago that I thought a story of mine was very much influenced by A PRAYER FOR THE DYING. I read once that O'Nan's book had borrowed the phenomenon (although certainly not the writing or actual plot) from WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP.
If you've never read WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP or seen the doc, I highly recommend both. The book and film use the negatives of the town photographer and the newspaper articles of the local reporter.
If you want to read a horror story beyond anything written by King or Koontz, give this a try.
I've spoken of it before because I used it in my last WIP. (Can it be a WIP if it's your last one?)
Anyway, if you want to get an idea of what the plague in O'Nan's book was like, its impact on rural Wisconsin, take a look. Your local university library will probably have it. Published in 1972 by Michael Lesy although reprinted in 2000 or so.
**My book group discussed PRAYER last night. They admired much about it but on the whole found it too bleak. I found it more enigmatic than on my last reding a decade ago. What book was too bleak for you, if any?
If you want to read a horror story beyond anything written by King or Koontz, give this a try.
I've spoken of it before because I used it in my last WIP. (Can it be a WIP if it's your last one?)
Anyway, if you want to get an idea of what the plague in O'Nan's book was like, its impact on rural Wisconsin, take a look. Your local university library will probably have it. Published in 1972 by Michael Lesy although reprinted in 2000 or so.
**My book group discussed PRAYER last night. They admired much about it but on the whole found it too bleak. I found it more enigmatic than on my last reding a decade ago. What book was too bleak for you, if any?
12 comments:
The easy answer is BLEAK HOUSE, but seriously, the bleakest book I've ever read is THE ROAD by Cormac Mccarthy.
My husband agrees it was bleaker. This was one community-that was about the end.
Not intended, but it sure puts a spin on Jill Scott, this post's title.
Yish, "beyond anything written by King or Koontz"? Wanna read a crime story more powerful than anything by Lawrence Sanders or Nora Roberts? Then try WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP.
I'm not sure I've read anything too bleak to continue with, for that reason alone...even with stacked decks. Cheap or unearned nihilism or cheapening the deeply serious for shock value or even for heartfelt advocacy have annoyed me (some YA novels, Vachss's Burke series), but I don't recall anything so bleak that I couldn't go forward. (Most recently, a viewing last night of the film GARDENS OF THE NIGHT certainly piled on, perhaps just a little too much, w/o being wildly at variance with some folks' experience.)
And how is the WIP your last one? Just in the sense of your current, or the last you intend to attempt? I gather, and hope, the former.
The director of WIP, in addition to directing the much-loved doc MAN ON WIRE, directed a shocking little sleeper called THE KING w/ Gael Garcia Bernal, Paul Dano, and William Hurt. Try not to read a synopsis of the film if you can, just rent it and be tremendously disturbed.
Elmore Leonard continues his tour of NPR series--he'll be the guest of the second hour of TALK OF THE NATION tomorrow.
We are pretty sad old duck, George. Although you're a year younger.
Todd- I think you can read without feeling threatened. I can't.
I am 2/3 through novel 2. Less bleak, funnier, it sprawls more.
Elmore was a treat and I am not a real fan.
I have to agree with George - McCarthy's THE ROAD was very very bleak; It was so bleak I couldn't wait to get to the end of THE ROAD. Well written, yet drastically bleak.
You folks should avoid a Whole Lot of the better end of the world sf...
"No Country for Old Men" was pretty bleak, and I'd imagine it would be too bleak for a large percentage of readers. It wasn't just that the bad guy got away...there was so much more to it.
"Mr In-Between" by Neil Cross was also bleak, but in a different way. Unfortunately, it was made into a rather poor movie...
"The Devil In The White City."
It's rare in this dark decade that anything makes me incredibly depressed or even gives me any amount of despair.
"The Yiddish Policemen's Union" is a close second, but only because I couldn't finish it. The very thought of any Americans having to live in a separate state eats me up.
Ooh, DEVIL was scary, sad and true. A great book.
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