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20th century novelists
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Poll Question: Choose your favourite(s)
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
3 [2.24%]
9 [6.72%]
5 [3.73%]
5 [3.73%]
3 [2.24%]
6 [4.48%]
1 [0.75%]
11 [8.21%]
9 [6.72%]
2 [1.49%]
1 [0.75%]
7 [5.22%]
14 [10.45%]
9 [6.72%]
7 [5.22%]
1 [0.75%]
2 [1.49%]
5 [3.73%]
1 [0.75%]
11 [8.21%]
0 [0.00%]
2 [1.49%]
1 [0.75%]
3 [2.24%]
16 [11.94%]
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jamesbaldwin View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:


I thought that would be about Zeno's paradoxes. Will look for it, thanks.   And just to mention a popular Italian that would have made my list of novelists in the 20th Century: Umberto Eco. I particularly enjoyed Foucault's Pendulum.

I like very much The Name of the Rose; Foucaults Pendulum is more difficult to read but good.

Then, the others, The Island of the day before, and Baudolino.... I abandoned them after 100 pages. Eco was an erudite man, an intellectual. Then, at a certain age, he started writing novels. Italian criticism is very demanding (snob?) on style, on literary training, and struck down Eco, perhaps also because The name of the Rose was a besteller, a book that made history: a lot of people read it, even those without any culture. The F. pendulum has had a minor but good success, but after FP the inspiration of Eco was over and he has written well reviewed books in America or abroad, but that are not even considered in Italy.

Eco, Tamaro, Baricco have written best seller, but they are not well criticized.

Instead Tabucchi, with his bestseller Pereira claims was well criticized. 
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Originally posted by LAM-SGC LAM-SGC wrote:

I assume we are applying the 20th century tag somewhat loosely and differently from writer to writer. For example, Hamsun's most important, influential and best-known books were written in the 1890s. 
Yeah, but they were at least 10 years ahead of their time. Wink
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Originally posted by Vompatti Vompatti wrote:

Originally posted by LAM-SGC LAM-SGC wrote:

I assume we are applying the 20th century tag somewhat loosely and differently from writer to writer. For example, Hamsun's most important, influential and best-known books were written in the 1890s. 
Yeah, but they were at least 10 years ahead of their time. Wink
 

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Originally posted by Cosmiclawnmower Cosmiclawnmower wrote:

No Doris Lessing??? Come on!!!!
...

A super nice writer, but I am not sure that a lot of folks like it ... she can be a feminist, and all of a sudden, she is just another person and not a feminist. Then she can write a story that goes backwards, which is fabulous, and you can read it in an hour ... no one will read it!

And she writes some science fiction, which I have not read. The other book of hers I started but school prevented me from finishing, was THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK, which I was enjoying.

I always thought that a lot of her writing was movie material, but weirdly enough, I am not sure that some folks want to try these ... the cross cultural this and that from her Rhodesia days, and then ... the thought that women giving opinions on their lives and how they feel about it ... is not literature, and many other things that are ... scary ... like THE 5th CHILD ... every mother's worst nightmare! And probably the kind of novel that drives women away ... permanently!
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I like John Fowles very much.
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Love Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities is gorgeous.
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Originally posted by jamesbaldwin jamesbaldwin wrote:

Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:


I thought that would be about Zeno's paradoxes. Will look for it, thanks.   And just to mention a popular Italian that would have made my list of novelists in the 20th Century: Umberto Eco. I particularly enjoyed Foucault's Pendulum.

I like very much The Name of the Rose; Foucaults Pendulum is more difficult to read but good.

Then, the others, The Island of the day before, and Baudolino.... I abandoned them after 100 pages. Eco was an erudite man, an intellectual. Then, at a certain age, he started writing novels. Italian criticism is very demanding (snob?) on style, on literary training, and struck down Eco, perhaps also because The name of the Rose was a besteller, a book that made history: a lot of people read it, even those without any culture. The F. pendulum has had a minor but good success, but after FP the inspiration of Eco was over and he has written well reviewed books in America or abroad, but that are not even considered in Italy.

Eco, Tamaro, Baricco have written best seller, but they are not well criticized.

Instead Tabucchi, with his bestseller Pereira claims was well criticized. 

"Baudolino" is my personal favorite of Umberto Eco. you made a big mistake putting it down after 100 pages. that book is so funny, at least if you know as much about the middle ages as I do. his references to the Physiologus, a bestiary and one of the most important books in the middle ages (though it was originally written in the 2nd century) are simply hilarious. the book's influence lasted over 1000 years.

and his "La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana" ("The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana") was extremely interesting. this is what wikipedia says about the plot:

The plot of the book concerns Yambo (full name: Giambattista Bodoni, just like the typographer Giambattista Bodoni), a 59-year-old Milanese antiquarian book dealer who loses his episodic memory due to a stroke. At the beginning of the novel, he can remember everything he has ever read but does not remember his family, his past, or even his own name. Yambo decides to go to Solara, his childhood home, parts of which he has abandoned following a family tragedy, to see if he can rediscover his lost past. After days of searching through old newspapers, vinyl records, books, magazines and childhood comic books, he is unsuccessful in regaining memories, though he relives the story of his generation and the society in which his dead parents and grandfather lived. Ready to abandon his quest, he discovers a copy of the original First Folio of 1623 among his grandfather's books, the shock of which causes another incident, during which he relives his lost memories of childhood. The final section of the book is, therefore, a literary exploration of the traditional phenomenon whereby a person's life flashes before him or her, as Yambo struggles to regain the one memory he seeks above all others: the face of the girl he loved ever since he was a student.

I disagree about the ending though. in my opinion the hero of the book has a second stroke and dies, and what Eco tries to depict in the final section is what happens inside a dying brain

Edited by BaldJean - August 01 2019 at 17:48


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Favorite Writers: John Dickson Carr, Borges, Leroux, Rand, Stevenson, Chesterton, Bioy Casares, Poe, Murakami.

Like a lot: Orwell, García Marquez, Heinlein, Hesse, Lovecraft, Christie, Denevi.

I kinda like: Vonnegut and Solzhenitsyn.

I despise: Joyce, Pynchon, Auster and Wallace.


Edited by Upbeat Tango Monday - August 05 2019 at 02:57
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Originally posted by Upbeat Tango Monday Upbeat Tango Monday wrote:

Favorite Writers: John Dickson Carr, Borges, Leroux, Rand, Stevenson, Chesterton, Bioy Casares, Poe.

Like a lot: Orwell, García Marquez, Heinlein, Hesse, Lovecraft, Christie, Denevi.

I kinda like: Vonnegut and Solzhenitsyn.

I despise: Joyce, Pynchon, Auster and Wallace.

I assume you mean David Foster Wallace and not Irving Wallace. Looks like you despise "constructed" novels. My guess is that you despise Tom Robbins too since novels like "Jitterbug Perfume" or "Skinny Legs and All" are also very constructed.


Edited by BaldFriede - August 04 2019 at 02:59


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Haven't read Tom Robbins yet, Friede; and yes, I did mean David Foster Wallace.
Postmodernism is not my thing. I've never heard the term "constructed" applied to a novel, and would love to know what it means. I find these authors rather deconstructive myself.
Despise might be too big a word, but one can't hate Dan Brown, Stephenie Meyer or the guy who wrote Ready Player One...they don't elicit negative emotions and they don't deserve them either. Can't take them seriously.

I do think you can find great and funny ideas inside, let's say, a Wallace novel. But the slim plot,randomness and meandering around kind of kills the mood for me and I can't enjoy one thousand pages of collected thoughts. I did, however, find tiny sparks of brilliance on Infinite Jest and loved the review of a tennis final he wrote for a certain newspaper. That was pretty good.
I'm not too fond of extremely purple prose and the idea of writing with a thesaurus by your side in order to make something feel more clever and/or artistic. It looks completely staged and artificial.
Joyce's Ulysses (for instance) is a pretty simple story told in the most roundabout way possible. Obfuscation for the sake of it. I respect the opposite more: a really complex idea or plot told in a simple way.

Sorry, I'm digressing a bit.

Oh, I added Haruki Murakami to my list of favorite writers. I can't believe I've forgotten about him; he's great even though he's not a planner or heavy plotter.
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Have you ever read "1Q84" by Haruki Murakami (his magnum opus)? I ask because I suspect you would not like it because it is, to quote you, "a pretty simple story told in the most roundabout way possible" (he needs three volumes to tell it).


And you would most definitely hate "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" by Laurence Sterne (an 18th century novel) because this novel is taking "roundabout" to the extreme. There is for example a passage where the character of Uncle Toby walks down a flight of stairs, and Sterne needs about twenty pages to tell us about this. Jean and I, however, love this book.

Edited by BaldFriede - August 05 2019 at 04:42


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Originally posted by Cosmiclawnmower Cosmiclawnmower wrote:

No Doris Lessing??? Come on!!!!

You could say support for her is... lessing lessening.
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Originally posted by Howard the Duck Howard the Duck wrote:

Originally posted by Cosmiclawnmower Cosmiclawnmower wrote:

No Doris Lessing??? Come on!!!!

You could say support for her is... lessing lessening.

How sad ... and she was discussing racism outright, some 60+ years ago ... but in this day and age of hatred, not one knows a whole lot or even cares about it. Besides, we live in the age of disliking and disrespecting anything and everything ... and while the comment may sound funny to some, in the end, there are some artists that deserve a lot better for the work they did and how much they cared ... !!!
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does Roald Dahl count in the level of quality as the other mentioned authors

Edited by Icarium - August 06 2019 at 09:18
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^ I dunno k
^^ I didn't know she was Rhodesian. Did she write about the Bush War?
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Originally posted by Odvin Draoi Odvin Draoi wrote:

I like John Fowles very much.

One of my favorites....still like The Magus the best of all of his books.
Try Iain Banks....similar style at times and great story teller.
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Of the writers mentioned in this thread, the few that could write real page turners, for me, include:

 Herman Hesse, Thomas Mann, Umberto Eco, Robert Heinlein, and then Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinback.


Of those not mentioned here:  Evelyn Waugh, Dan Simmons, J.D. Salinger, Pearl S. Buck, and Amy Tan are the ones I found most inspiring and entertaining. 
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I looked at who had the most votes and voted for him - - he must be the best, right?

Actually, I’d’ve voted for Isaac Asimov.

Edited by patrickq - August 24 2019 at 20:19
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Originally posted by BrufordFreak BrufordFreak wrote:

Of the writers mentioned in this thread, the few that could write real page turners, for me, include:

Herman Hesse, Thomas Mann, Umberto Eco, Robert Heinlein, and then Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinback.

Of those not mentioned here: Evelyn Waugh, Dan Simmons, J.D. Salinger, Pearl S. Buck, and Amy Tan are the ones I found most inspiring and entertaining.


I always assumed it was Dan Simmons for you!

Edited by patrickq - August 24 2019 at 20:27
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Originally posted by Vompatti Vompatti wrote:

^ I dunno k
^^ I didn't know she was Rhodesian. Did she write about the Bush War?

English, but lived in Rhodesia ... some of her early novels are about blacks and their lives.
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