new novels and why they suck and whatever

is there anything particularly important about new novels where you ought to read them now versus waiting

Books mean different things at different times and at various ages when you read them. A perfect book for a younger person may not speak to you in middle age. Also, there's the exciting sense of discovery around newer work. No one bothers to write ponderous Introductions to recent novels; the appeal is straight from the author to you.

Look, I started Bleak House yesterday, and it's such an unfamiliar world that it feels "new." Read what you want when you want at your own pace.

of course if it's a new novel about now or an historical novel that's sort-of about now then now can be the most interesting or, if it's less good, the only interesting time to read it.

how would you guys characterize the current moment BTW? I was flipping through the Raymond Pettibon reader which is compiled from excerpts from Plato to Charles Manson and pretty much could not tell what era any selection was from without looking at the author.

Alfred is right, of course. You should always read exactly what you feel like reading. There's no merit points for slogging through something you hate.

in the thread on "The Tale of Genji" someone posts about the world of the novel (11th C Japan) being so alien it's really like reading some quasi-sci-fi novel. that kind of piqued my interest.

i mean it's impossible to characterize the current moment in a way that is accurate; these things are only possible in retrospect and then they're always kind of lies. also i am trying to come up with a useful lie about right now and i can't.

It does suck for me that a lot of friends who love Foer, Murakami, Palahniuk, etc won't touch anything written before, say, 1930; it's baffling!

There's no merit points for slogging through something you hate.

― Aimless, Friday, June 25, 2010 2:01 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

for sure. that's why i asked upthread how recently people who don't like modern fiction have read a lot of fiction. when i have felt that way it has usually been during periods where i wasn't reading much fiction at all. which fucked with my sense of identity, but i mean, whatever. sometimes you don't feel like reading fiction. it's okay.

by "felt that way" i mean "felt like, 'god everything that's being written these days sucks'"

people who love palahniuk are generally best avoided ime

uh oh

Tell me about it. He's one of my closest friends and he wrote his masters thesis on Palahniuk's work.

But you had a good point above, Aimless. Netherland, for example, struck such a chord with me partly because it's the first post-2001 novel I've read that deals with 9-11 in a completely honest and real way. I don't think someone who was born in 2010 will be able find the same resonance when they read it at age 25 or whenever. That said, they'd likely find their own resonance from their own perspective, but sometimes I just want to read fiction about NOW.

xxxposts man, I type slowly.

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.