The top book is POE, Kevin Hayes, a bio of Poe, which I think Phil gave me. Did I have some passive aggression in me that I so rarely read the books he chose for me? It's not much better when I look at ones Josh or Megan gave me. I guess I like to pick out my own books. We all gave each other books for almost every Christmas or birthday so there is quite a stash of them.
POE seems untouched. Pristine. And as I open it, the print is too small. Good lesson: don't gift books with small print. So hard to know the font size if you buy online, which we often did.
THE SPORTSWRITER is the first of Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe books. There are four now. (Rumor is he is working on a fifth). I like all of Ford's books. A bit like Updike's series on Rabbit Angstrom. Female novelist don't seem to take a character through a series of books like this although we do have two books on Olive Kitteredge from Elizabeth Strout. I know there are mystery writers that do, of course, but those novels aren't about the character as much as the crimes they solve.
THE NIGHT WATCH, Sarah Waters. Haven't read it. Mean to, but it is set around WW 2 and I have grown tired of books about that war.
THE QUIET AMERICAN, Graham Greene. I have read a lot of Graham Greene. A great writer. But I am not sure I have read this one. I saw the movie with Michael Caine though. I am wondering if a movie puts me on to buying the source more than reading it. I did read THE END OF THE AFFAIR after seeing the movie. In high school we read A BURNT OUT CASE, which seems a strange choice. There must be something about religion in it. Should probably read every book I was made to read in high school and see how they read as an adult.
Norman Sherry spent his life writing biographies of Greene and even Greene made fun of him. "Even you will not live to see the third volume, Sherry." I went to a book talk once where Sherry and an American had both written a bio of Green. I think it was Sherry's second volume. And the American biographer made fun of Sherry too. What a great novel that would be: a man who spends his life writing about one writer. I am sure it's been done.
GHOST WRITERS. This was an anthology edited by Keith Taylor, a lovely man, writer and teacher, who taught Megan at U of M and has encouraged her ever since. All of these ghost stories are by Michigan writers and I have not read it at all.
BLOOD MERIDIAN, Cormac McCarthy. One of Phil's favorites, which I have always meant to read but Phil said it was too dark for me. So I haven't. Only book I have read by him is ALL THE PRETTY HORSES.
PICKUP, Charles Willeford. A darker book than his Hoke Moseley ones (MIAMI BLUES) but just as good in a very much darker way. Could this be less dark than BLOOD MERIDIAN.
IRISH STORIES, ELIZABETH BOWEN. A great fan of THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Bowen, but I have not read these stories. This looks like a book picked up at a library sale. This has nice dark big print so I have no excuse.
THE NATURAL, Bernard Malamud. I have read all of Malamud. My favorite is THE ASSISTANT but this is a closer runner up. Although his stories in THE MAGIC BARREL are magnificent too. Does anyone read Malamud or, say Bellow anymore. Bellow was a more intellectual writer than Malamud and I liked him less. But both captures the middle of the 20th century Jewish experience so well. Of course, I guess, Roth was the king.
I AM SORRY TO HAVE GONE ON HERE SO LONG BUT I HAVE SO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS.
16 comments:
I love your choices here, Patti! I hope you'll like the Sarah Waters; I've read a few things of hers and liked them.
Don't apologize. I love lists like this.
I did read the complete Malamud stories several years ago. Have not been able to read Bellow. And yes, I guess Roth would be ahead of both of them for me.
I agree on Richard Ford (who George also reads). I liked THE SPORTSWRITER. In fact, I am in the middle of the third book in the series, which I keep meaning to get back to. It does remind me of Updike's Rabbit series too.
I've read a few of Greene's novels, more of his stories and non-fiction, including his books about traveling through Africa when he was much younger. I do think I read THE QUIET AMERICAN, perhaps in my Vietnam book stage, perhaps when the Michael Caine movie came out. The first Greene I read was THE COMEDIANS, believe it or not, when the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton movie version came out in 1967.
Cormac McCarthy is another highly praised author who is just not for me. I've tried.
I do have Willeford's PICKUP on the shelf, and every time you mention it, I think that I really should read it. One of these days I will.
When you see a reporter reporting from his home office, do you strain to see the book titles on the shelves behind him? I guess books are the great inanimate love of our lives.
Margot, if her books were shorter I might read one. The length puts me off.
I do! I used to love the pictures Bill Crider posted from his office with all the old paperbacks. Sometimes I think the reporters are trying to prove something by always sitting in front of a bookcase like that.
Phil was right about BLOOD MERIDIAN! Somebody is killed on practically every page! I liked the early Richard Ford, but I struggled through CANADA.
Patti, when I see though books behind some of the people interviewed during this pandemic, I recognize they are. FAKE books! The best reporters and commentators like Amy Walter change their books every week.
Yeah, CANADA was a strange one.
More and more I am recognizing how unorganized my books are. And in general, I am not unorganized. I wonder what that's about.
Yes, I try to see the titles of books in the background of those reporters homes. I've seen that fat biography of Grant in at least two.
Another vote for Go on as long as you'd like to.
Bellow at his best is witty (even very funny) but is perhaps holding his characters aloft for examination, while Roth can seem almost airless at times, more a sense that everyone is a reflection of Roth or a driver of Rothian reaction...Malamud seems to be more generous than that, at least.
Likewise, McCarthy is more portentious in a kind of Normal Mailerish way but not more spiritually ugly than the midcentury noir writers at most bleak. Like some of the latter sf writers not labeled as such, he is credited and sometimes reviled for re-inventing wheels. I was watching one or two of his earlyish plays on the PBS series VISIONS in the late '70s, I recently learned. Mamet-esque as well.
NBC's LATE NIGHT's Seth Meyers, doing his show from his attic, has had a running joke about how many copies of THE THORN BIRDS and occasionally other novels adapted for mostly '70s tv miniseries will collect in the corners of houses, and tries to have some number of them, and occasionally none, appear on a table behind his makeshift desk.
I too, have snubbed Keith Taylor's work for no good reason other than he was being highlighted in an issue of WEIRD TALES (1980s/90s version) I could ill afford (think that was not long after Donna and I took our first apartment) and at that time I hadn't heard of him since he was publishing his fantasy mostly under another name. Never have gotten back to that issue.
Thanks for this week's installment!
The only novel I have read by Richard Ford is Wildfire which I liked. Have the movie version dvr'd but haven't gotten around to it yet. I also like his short stories.
I read all of Malamud and most of Bellow back in the 60's and 70's. I prefer Malamud. I liked early Bellow better than his later stuff, esp liked Augie March and Henderson the Rain King but am not sure if they would hold up now. Nobody seems to read Malamud or Bellow much anymore.
Blood Meridian is in my top ten favorite novels.
Loved the Hoke Mosely novels by Willeford but have never read anything else by him.
Went through a Graham Greene kick awhile back. Espn like The Quiet American, Brighton Rock and The Power and the Glory.
I always find myself looking at the bookshelves in movies and tv shows but usually can't make anything out. Although once in a movie where a character was a professor his bookshelves were full of Readers Digest condensed books. Some set designer wasn't paying much attention.
Keith Taylor mostly writes poetry, I think. I have heard him read on occasion.
The movie was good, Steve. Very small and quiet movie.
Looking at these books, which I just moved out of my room, bookcase and all, they look so old. I must find a shelf with newer books next week.
I have many biographies of Grant on my shelf. And he wrote a terrific autobiography, I believe.
Thanks, Patti...there are at least three Keith Taylors writing and/or editing fantasy thus, at least one on each continent...in Australia, the KT who wrote as "Denis More" early in his career, "yours" there in Michigan, and one other in the UK. ISFDB misattributes GHOST WRITERS to one of the others, not aware of this third or fourth KT from their perspective.
It seems they blithely assumed they had the right Keith Taylor in the second Australian KT because Wayne State's KT's collaborating editor was fellow WSUer Laura Kasischke, who among other work had a story, "Search Continues for Elderly Man" published initially in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION in 2008, and the next year translated into the French edition FICTION, and reprinted in Kevin Brockmeier and Matthew Cheney's best of the year annual BEST AMERICAN FANTASY VOLUME III: BEST UNREAL.
Sorry...Kasischke has been in faculty at the U of M. One of her novels was a bestseller in France.
She also taught at Eastern Michigan and I considered taking a class with her. She's written a lot, I believe.
I also enjoy your comments about books, no need to apologize. And I admire your ability to write concisely about each title. My husband can do that, but I just go on and on.
A while back I thought about read Richard Ford's books but never did.
Night Watch is the only book I have read by Sarah Waters and I liked it but it has a strange format, starts at the end or something like that. I like different approaches to stories but it was confusing at times.
I still love reading about World War II and right now I just finished The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard. It is set before the war starts and then there are four books following that with the same characters (The Cazalet Chronicles).
I haven't read much by Graham Greene and I don't know why. I plan to read The Quiet American and then rewatch the film.
The Seth Myers jokes about THORN BIKES had me bursting with laughter.
I've been pausing video to try and read the book titles behind presenters.
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