Summarise a Novel in 25 Words

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Candy, Terry Southern

Bang! Daddy!

trvolk, Sunday, 29 February 2004 02:00 (twenty years ago) link

Misery

I love your books. Write me one. Trying to leave, huh? Bang.

Afgn Caap, Sunday, 29 February 2004 02:09 (twenty years ago) link

Infinite Jest:

Boy, this is a good movie. Canadians are scary. Don't do drugs.

Brado, Sunday, 29 February 2004 02:59 (twenty years ago) link

Incest is bad, mmmkay? "Born with the tail of a pig" can be a metaphor too. It takes one hundred years to learn this lesson.

-Gabriel Garcia Marquez

mike phelan, Sunday, 29 February 2004 03:21 (twenty years ago) link

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Young man moves to the boondocks and finds it nice and quiet. This
discovery has influenced millions around the world. Rather insightful. No
sex.

AjD, Sunday, 29 February 2004 03:45 (twenty years ago) link

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Vegas ahead. We have drugs. We do them. This race sucks. This town is degenerate. The sixties were cool. Cops are silly. Going home.

nil, Sunday, 29 February 2004 03:53 (twenty years ago) link

Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov:

Three Russian sisters want to go to Moscow. They don't go.

D.Nash, Sunday, 29 February 2004 04:01 (twenty years ago) link

Boy is born, acquires mean stepfather, loses same. Finds nice aunt and felonious redhead. Marries in haste, repents at leisure. Hero of his own life.

(David Copperfield)

Girl is born, loses parents, finds nice man and big house to clean. Watches as red tape strangles youth and beauty.

(Bleak House)

jefu, Sunday, 29 February 2004 04:59 (twenty years ago) link

The Man Who Was Thursday (D.K. Chesterton):

There are seven anarchists. Oh, wait, six of them are policemen trying to find the other six. One of them is God.

Ethan Struby, Sunday, 29 February 2004 05:25 (twenty years ago) link

Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo

I'm über-powerful. sex. wed perfection but don't know her. sex. 'misplace' billions. sex. killer where? sex. what’s pain? lets shoots hand. nothing more to live for.

(I’m taking one of the unused words for my quota)

Liz C, Sunday, 29 February 2004 05:54 (twenty years ago) link

Fight Club (again) --

The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club.

ashley jade, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:05 (twenty years ago) link

I'm just a little boy at school. Yay, I found whores! Eek, I saw hell! Oh fuck, it's God! Non servium! Turns out, Ireland blows.

(Joyce - Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man)

Chris Conroy, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:32 (twenty years ago) link


Musical prodigy receives all sorts of erudite training growing up, becomes leader of civilized world, plays best game ever, retires, imagines other lives, and dies.

vi2pr8r, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:33 (twenty years ago) link

And the one I posted at Metafilter:

I'm homeless, I've got one leg, whoops, now both are shit. I'm a detective, I've got a son, whoops, now I don't. Who's writing this?

(Beckett - Molloy)

Chris Conroy, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:35 (twenty years ago) link

Hitler got me tenure. Shit, what's that in the sky? Sure, we're all postmodern consumer whores, but the real question is: who's fucking my wife?

(Don DeLillo - White Noise)

Chris Conroy, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:38 (twenty years ago) link

Jewish TV producer lusts after women and single malt whisky, kills best friend, hits on another woman at his wedding. Gets Alzheimer's, dies lonely.


"Barney's Version", Mordecai Richler

antifreez, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:43 (twenty years ago) link

In the future, there will be robots. I love you, Decker. Dance for me.

(Phillip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?)

And yes, I have memorized all of the commercials on Wave 103 in GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY. Kill me now.

Chris Conroy, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:47 (twenty years ago) link


Hackworth renegs on deal; girl learns from nanobook; many technologies are explained; Judge Fang, Dr. X help orphan girls; and as war comes, book ends.

vi2pr8r, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:50 (twenty years ago) link

You can be my baby, it don't matter if you're black or white. Unfortunately, my ex-husband is psychotic. So we might end up dead.

(Philip Roth - THE HUMAN STAIN)

I'm going to stop now...

Chris Conroy, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:54 (twenty years ago) link


Children exercise imagination while hiding in furniture, "remythologizing" the story of Jesus; all the saved animals dance when God wins. Only Professor believes the children.

vi2pr8r, Sunday, 29 February 2004 06:59 (twenty years ago) link


All the women I know are psychotically out to get me. I'm a little twisted myself and confusing things keep happening to me. What's real?

(a novel by PKDick)

vi2pr8r, Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:04 (twenty years ago) link

when your being sodomized who cares if its from the "left" or the "right."

Desade- "justine or Good Conduct Well Chastised'

Bill Me, Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:06 (twenty years ago) link

where's your mother, not here today?
i think i'll let myself in to play.
let's play, me and you,
let's see what these Things do!

vi2pr8r, Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:09 (twenty years ago) link

lennon's dead, husband's dead, the bishop's lover's dead, the bishop died alone in the desert looking for early christians. maybe this retarded boy can help.

vi2pr8r, Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:14 (twenty years ago) link

Mortars are effective guerilla weapons. I wasn't a great racist revolutionary, but made up my faults via martyrdom operation. Now i am a patriot saint.

Turner Diaries

ozzy mandias, Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:22 (twenty years ago) link

Curse Of The Bambino by Shank
1918 Ruth sold for cash Snodgrass mad dash Williams fails to mash 67 year of the Yaz Buckner's ball doesn't bounce true Curses foiled again

Grady Little, Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:30 (twenty years ago) link

Shigekune Honda meets Kiyoaki Matsugae's soul every eighteen years: Isao, Chantrapa, Toru, each meeting worse, as Western modernity dilutes the once glorious culture of Japan.

The Sea of Fertility, tetralogy (4 books, sorry), Yukio Mishima

vi2pr8r, Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:47 (twenty years ago) link

Young man denounces religion; learns the virtues of thought, patience and fasting. The river tells all and in the end, friends are all that matters.

Xenocide, Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:48 (twenty years ago) link

The Things They Carried

Although it seemed terrrible at the time, we survivors, who are still sane and solvent, actually amassed a lot of poignant anecdotes while in Vietnam.

vi2pr8r, Sunday, 29 February 2004 08:14 (twenty years ago) link

"Hal, please send my manuscript to the printer."
i'm sorry, Dave, i cannot do that
"Come on, Hal!"
i'm sorry, Da -- Dave, don't do tha--

mwerp, Sunday, 29 February 2004 08:21 (twenty years ago) link

Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here

neocon junta steals american election, stages false flag op, declares war on everybody, suspends the constitution, people are disappeared -- oh wait, it can happen here.

vi2pr8r, Sunday, 29 February 2004 08:29 (twenty years ago) link

Paradise Lost - by John Milton

The story of genesis - conjured in dulcet prose. Satan is imbued with such humanity that one is tempted to root for him. I did. Pity.

Jake jeckle, Sunday, 29 February 2004 08:44 (twenty years ago) link

Oranges are not the Only Fruit:

When one is going to Heaven, one gives not a shit about other people.

SRH (Skrik), Sunday, 29 February 2004 12:30 (twenty years ago) link

The Iliad

Lots of guys fight for 10 years over a girl that isn't theirs. Arrogance is brought to heel.

The Odyssey

Guy takes 10 years to return from fight over girl before he comes home to his wife. She's unusually understanding.

The Aeneid

W3 R0M^NS ARE L33T T00!! AND 0UR B1TCH3S R0CK!!

Hamlet

My family's fucked up. I'll pretend to be crazy, lull them into a false sense of security and kill them.

pyramid termite, Sunday, 29 February 2004 14:30 (twenty years ago) link

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

You might want to read the ingredients on that package of sausage....

Christine, by Steven King

When automobiles attack....

The Iliad, by Homer

Long boats trips, many battles. Man, the woman had best be awake when I get home.

Jack Cluth, Sunday, 29 February 2004 15:21 (twenty years ago) link

Bonfire of the Vanities: Rich spoiled man accidentally kills someone, lies, gets caught, loses all, learns humility. Film adapation sucks.

Greg, Sunday, 29 February 2004 15:51 (twenty years ago) link

A Simple Plan, by Scott Smith

Three can keep a secret if two are dead. Well, shit, I guess not. Live and learn.

Greg, Sunday, 29 February 2004 15:55 (twenty years ago) link

To Have and Have Not, Hemingway

Rum running; more than a job, it's an adventure. If I die, I guess my wife can support herself as a prostitute.

Greg, Sunday, 29 February 2004 16:08 (twenty years ago) link

masochist marries codex, blushes at other guy. Doctor marries chit. Having money is as bad as not having money - or is it? Get married!

Middlemarch


nmhiggins, Sunday, 29 February 2004 16:16 (twenty years ago) link

Jude the Obscure

Boy goes to school, marries hussy, she throws pig genitals at him, they divorce, he falls in love. Incest babies kill themselves. Sad.

Sofi, Sunday, 29 February 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago) link

Correction to above's Jude the Obscure:

Boy goes to school, marries hussy, she throws pig genitals at him, they divorce, he falls in love with COUSIN. Incest babies kill themselves. Sad.

Sofi, Sunday, 29 February 2004 16:19 (twenty years ago) link

Lord of the Flies

Group of kids and a fat kid get stranded. Find a counch. Go crazy and kill a pig. Then killed the fat kid.

Mike Lawson, Sunday, 29 February 2004 17:48 (twenty years ago) link

"There you have it." (intermission) "There you have it." "Shall we go?". "Yes lets go." (They do not move.)

(Waiting For Godot - alright, its a play not a novel.)


"Going down."
"Lobby. Pagans, Philosophers, The Unlucky."
"Basement. Icky People."
"SubBasement. Really Icky People.
"SubSubBasement. Seriously Icky People."
...
"Bottom. All out. Elevator up over there."

(The Inferno. Dante Alighieri)

jefu, Sunday, 29 February 2004 19:11 (twenty years ago) link

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

I'm not gay, but I like to kiss women. Some say I hate my life, but in reality I'm just far too melodramatic. (Except Virginia.)

Martin Bourqui, Sunday, 29 February 2004 19:13 (twenty years ago) link

Top five desert island plot points...
1) Guy loses girl
2) Obsesses over girls he's nailed.
3) Listens to records
4) Nails musician
5) Gets out of rut, back with girlfriend.

(High Fidelity - Nick Hornby)
Film adaptation is pretty good, John Cusack is loveable.

John Papamarko, Sunday, 29 February 2004 19:32 (twenty years ago) link

Sloth or entropy

I just realized this is an anagram of Tyrone Slothrop.


I would NEVER have noticed. that was brilliant. utterly brilliant.

sara, Sunday, 29 February 2004 19:41 (twenty years ago) link

Big Sur.

I can't think of anything to write, so I'll isolate myself on a beach. No, still can't write. Apart from this waffle.

All Bunged Up. (Jake Proudlock), Sunday, 29 February 2004 20:22 (twenty years ago) link

Thought my boss died. Oh, wait, I did. That explains my car morphing into earlier models, and my face showing up on his dimes!

John G, Sunday, 29 February 2004 20:37 (twenty years ago) link

A Clockwork Orange

Teens beat, steal and rape. Teen gets caught. Brainwashing ensues. Violent teens are now cops. Unbrainwashing ensues. Violence = bad. Choosing violence = good. Milk = good.

=s are not words.

Khet, Sunday, 29 February 2004 22:27 (twenty years ago) link

My family's oppressive, and I'm lonely and dying. I'll marry the local scoundrel for kicks. Wait, I'm healthy! Thank God my husband's a disguised millionaire.

(The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery)

a bree (abreebb), Sunday, 29 February 2004 23:57 (twenty years ago) link


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