new novels and why they suck and whatever

plax: if you loved Infinite Jest I'd highly recommend Bolano. he's the first *contemporary* author I really got into after reading everything by DFW. I read Savage Detectives a while ago and enjoyed it a lot, now I'm almost halfway through 2666 and loving it.

yeah I don't have any time for Palahniuk either

i was really into palahniuk when i was in school and i would probably still enjoy his first few if i read them now, i lost interest around the time of diary though

i read something by him in HS, don't remember the name of it. hated it.

I'm really glad the dude exists though. If only to endlessly misspell his name. Also he seems really earnest.

yeah he is, but invisible monsters explained felching to me and is intercut w. descriptions of different kinds of vaginal construction surgery and recreational uses for prescription drugs

I have some knee jerk reaction against new fiction and I can't exactly say why. The writers always seem like people I don't want to spend much time with, but of course who's to say that wouldn't also be true of Christopher Isherwood or W. Somerset maugham or Mikhail Bulgakov or whoever?

all my favorite old-timey writers kind of seem like they would have been horrible to be around.

I quite liked that Michael Chabon book about comics and I liked Stephen Millhauser's "Martin Dressler".

xp - yes, sure

I have a similar knee-jerk thing that I consciously try to overcome. Threads like this help, also I find reading good, thoughtful interviews with living writers gets me excited about trying their stuff.

I am reading Under The Volcano now, which is great, but by all accounts Malcolm Lowry was a prick, yes?

yeah he sounds crazy

Speaking of which, wasn't there some profile (The New Yorker, I think) that mentioned his incredibly small penis

that profile is my source for thinking he was bonkers. strangely didn't recall the thing about his penis.

more importantly, did he eat any truffle fries

sometimes i read things that are not the new yorker btw :/

I have some knee jerk reaction against new fiction and I can't exactly say why. The writers always seem like people I don't want to spend much time with,

The novels are better company.

lol

xxp

What about short fiction? Some new short form writing seems good. I read Black Clock sometimes which varies but has good things in it. Expensive, though. How is Granta these days?

She's slipped a bit, but, god, I love Alice Munro.

The novels are better company.

Of course, but I can't help but be hyper aware of the person behind the novel. I'm married to a writer though! =)

granta's pretty :/ these days. The stuff I read in the new electric literature was p. good if kind of relying on big writers in the lit mag or lit conference circuit these days.

Two of my best friends are total Alice Munro freaks. i rly need to check her out.

my older sister has 2666. it is big. she gave it to me and my other sister said "its really hard to find the kind of books i like"

i like agni. should probably read more lit journals.

any suggestions for "historical fantasy that is not about vampires in the '40s"

plax I highly recommend Moorcock's Pyat novels, a re-counting of the first half of the 20th century as told through a highly unreliable narrator who fancies himself a scientific genius but is actually just a deluded stooge. hits all the high points - the Russian Revolution, Roaring 20s and Depression-era America, north Africa and the middle east just prior to WWII, and then of course a love affair with Hitler. Fantastic.

long but REALLY fun

I second the love for Alice Munroe, I've only read Runaway, but it was really good and I'll def be seeking out more.

Munro*

Did anyone read "Tree Of Smoke" and can they recommend it? I hate to admit it, but I do not read enough female authors.

i read about 40 pages of tree of smoke and stopped. couldn't get into it.

Also are who are the good contemporary authors from Asia? I am particularly interested in South and Southeast Asian authors.

Good thread, btw

plax, re: excellent historical fantasy, try anything by Tim Powers (except for his lone vampire one). Anubis Gates and Last Call particularly recommended.

There was a contemporary Chinese novel reviewed in the Times last year, I believe the title was 'Living And Dying Are Getting Me Down', which sounded hella awesome, subversive talking animal stuff.

my older sister has 2666. it is big.

it's easy to read, though. i've read half of it in less than a week.

I started The Savage Detectives but it really annoyed me

what about it?

Too meta? The wrong kind of meta?

Definitely willing to give it another try

huh, i guess i find his kind of meta to be fairly subtle. or well integrated into the story/characters.

Too many characters to keep track of in that second section (says the guy reading Dickens).

i think i'm gonna end up liking 2666 a lot more than The Savage Detectives

There was a contemporary Chinese novel reviewed in the Times last year, I believe the title was 'Living And Dying Are Getting Me Down', which sounded hella awesome, subversive talking animal stuff.

Sorry, missed this. Thanks! Google search not turning anything up, sadly.

What I want is the literary equivalent of an Apichatpong film.

would read ^

ah:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/books/review/Spence-t.html

Thanks, JL!

Ha, yes, 'Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out' was it. It's good for me to be reminded, I need to track that book down.

What I want is the literary equivalent of an Apichatpong film.

The good parts of Pound's Cantos?