Jesus, Unc is going to think I’m having too much fun here and ask the mods to close the thread…
Cristi: Do you know Karen Armstrong’s A HISTORY OF GOD? It’s a very intelligent history and commentary on the three Western monotheistic religions, from the Jews’ transformation of pagan idol worship to the rise of Islam, through the Enlightenment to the modern age, and how the three affect each other.
ValerieBlaise: How about Henry Adams’ classic of travel, history, and reportage, MONT SAINT MICHEL AND CHARTRES? “A frolic power unusual to historic literature,” said William James.
NothingMan: You like Arthurian fantasy? Go for Lewis Spence’s HERO TALES AND LEGENDS OF THE RHINE. First published in 1915, it’s one of the best samplings of Teutonic folklore, recounting the lives and deeds of a host of mythic figures…Siegfried and Brunhild, the Jester of Heidelberg, Tannhauser, Lorelei. Makes a nice comparison and contrast to Brit fantasy, but is similar enough that you’ll enjoy it in the same vein. And as a bonus, you’ll be able to understand Wagner’s operas!
Kat: Joseph Roth. THE RADETZKY MARCH. One of the best 20th century German novels, right up there with Thomas Manna dn Robert Musil. Set in the pre-War Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nadine Gordimer called it a masterpiece. Read it yet?
Narile: TV series tie-ins? Pfah. What do you take me for? Read BLACK EMPIRE by George Schuyler, the Harlem Renaissance journalist/satirist. Written in the 1930s, it’s a fantastic utopia novel in which the African-American mastermind Dr. Henry Belsidus schemes to liberate the continent of Africa and subjugate the white and yellow races beneath his somewhat Nazi-like boot heel. Pulpy, but in the GOOD way.
mazirian: Funny, eh? Donald E. Westlake. Any of the Dortmunder series. THE HOT ROCK was the first, WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? is the most recent. Comic caper novels about a crook with just the most miserable luck. Not only as funny as hell, but as carefully plotted and crafted as anything in crime fiction today. You’ll marvel at how the story’s working out between snickering.
ultress: Richard Rovere’s HOWE & HUMMEL: THEIR TRUE AND SCANDALOUS HISTORY. Between 1869 and 1907, H&H was the most successful and notorious criminal law office in the city of New York. They defended over a thousand people indicted for murder, and had a monopoly of the rest of crook business in NYC as well. Their courtroom methods were outrageous, and their client list included P.T. Barnum, John L. Sullivan. Lillian Russell, and Marm Mandelbaum, the queen of New York’s underworld. Nicely written history, too…it originally appeared as a serial in THE NEW YORKER.
Billdo: Once considered the best American novel to come out of World War One, William March’s COMPANY K is now almost forgotten. The book consists of 113 sketches, or chapters, tracing the fictional company’s exploits and providing an emotional history of its soldiers. Gut-wrenching stuff, told by a trench veteran. The University of Alabama Press has it back in print.
Eve: I simply do NOT trust the mails. Howzabout I return your belongings at the next NYC Round Table and Beer Blast? That would be (checks appointment book) either the SwimmingRiddles, pldennison, or SqrlCub party…
Esprix: No god damn way. Get my name right if you want favors. UncleBeer is the devastatingly handsome witty bespectacled six-footer with the moustache.
SwimmingRiddles: Quirky AND philosophical. Take Italo Calvino’s INVISIBLE CITIES. It’s sunset, and Kubla Khan is conversing with the young Marco Polo about the evolution of the universe…characters are created out of mathematical formulae and simple cellular structures…Prospero waves his magic wand. The Empire is ending.
rackensack: Yeah, I read the Glenny translation first, too. Can’t say it bothered me any, but I re-read it in the Burgin/O’Connor and seemed to enjoy it more. So that’s the one I recommend to folks (although it may be the fact that it was a second reading that influenced my enjoyment).
I’ve also heard that the Ginsberg translation bites the wax tadpole. Mullinator, avoid that one like the very plague!
rackensack: Lessee…you have excellent taste in literature, as you revere McTEAGUE and THE MASTER AND MARGARITA…Have you ever tried THE OLD WIVES’ TALE? I think it’s Arnold Bennett’s best novel. 1908 English realism, with superb, almost Dickensian characters. And as a bonus, the best description of a guillotining ever written.
Holy shit! I guess I didn’t think this one through completely. On further reflection, this thread is kinda like askin’ a pusher which is is better, the crack or the crank.
Carry on, Uke. You’re doin’ a fine job. Next I think we’ll get Eve to recommend silent movies for us.
beatle: Throw off your shackles! Get down and funky with the proletariat! It’s our Revolution and we can dance if we wanna! Get ANARCHISM by Daniel Guerin, the French New Left’s answer to Noam Chomsky!
I can just see the Teeming Millions rushing to their video stores and mail-order catalogues, breakin’ their necks to see Lillian Gish or Ramon Novarro.
Esprix: Apology cheerfully accepted…for you, Evelyn Waugh’s first novel, DECLINE AND FALL. Early Waugh is as funny as Wodehouse, yet infinitely bitchier. This one is a masterpiece of black humor, and I think it holds together better than the other early-'30s novels.
Ike: Bad-mouth Waugh’s delicious VILE BODIES at your own risk . . .
I see you haven’t yet recommended any Tiffany Thayers! And Sax adored the Olive Higgins Prouty novel I loaned her. I know you detest Thorne Smith, but how about Patrick Dennis? Anita Loos? J.P. McEvoy? James Cain? Christopher Morley? And we haven’t even gotten to the wonderful histories by Stanley Loomis.
Thanks for your recommendations, Uke. I will take you up on them. I may even actually buy them, rather than rely on the King County Library System. (This is largely a concession to Mrs. P., who is of the opinion that a house full of books is not necessarily better than a house half full of books.)
However, as I read Eve’s increasingly caustic remarks I notice that you have not yet recommended her books to anyone. That just might be the burr in her saddle.
Hi Uke! Is it too late to ask for a recommendation? If all else fails, I can always reread “The Master and Margarita”.
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Oh yeah? Well, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. Backwards. In high heels. - As per Wally
