# Most Evocative Book You've Ever Read is...? (HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282 "2006-05-03T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/21 "2006-05-04T03:02:31Z")
While he’s been dismissed as a pulp author, Herman Wouk’s _Winds of War_ and _War & Remembrance_, especially the latter, made me “feel” the horrors of WW2 more than any fictional account I’ve read. Natalie and Aaron Jastrow’s experiences as propaganda tools in Theresienstadt filled me with visceral hatred of fictional characters (I assume fictional- I’m referring to the Nazi officer and his lieutenants who control Natalie with her son) and that’s very rare for me. Again with Capote: _Christmas Memory_ made me and other boys cry in 10th grade English class, and I was probably one of the least sentimental of the lot. (Of course I’ve always had incredible weakness for people who want nothing more out of life than what most would regard as excrement but they still can’t have it.) _The Color Purple_ using very simple language that an uneducated Georgia sharecropper would know conjured a scene for me more real than the movie in its technicolor. (And I _liked_ the movie.) Cheesy as it may sound, parts of Laura Ingalls Wilder did it for me, especially the details. I mentioned on SDMB one time how the scene with her and her sisters playing so happily with a balloon made from a hog’s bladder tells you a lot more about frontier life in a farming family than a mountain of statistics and histories written by scholars. Of course I’m a detail and dialogue nut, both of which bog down my own writing. To me entrance to the reality of a story is often granted through a single line that may have nothing to do with the action at hand but somehow tells you volumes about that character. Flannery O’Connor, while I couldn’t agree less with her on matters of religion, had this ability in droves. Fannie Flagg had it in _Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe_ but not in anything else I’ve read by her. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/22 "2006-05-04T04:57:40Z")
Truman Capote, _A Christmas Memory_ and _A Thanksgiving Visitor_. Wow. I grew up not far from where these stories are set, and they bring it back to me so vividly. Dodie Smith, _I Capture the Castle_. I read this because I loved _101 Dalmations_. It’s a totally different book, and creates an amazing, powerful sense of place. Neruda _Malostrana Tales_. I bought a copy in Prague, and reading it made the old city more real to me than wandering around the tourist shops. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/23 "2006-05-04T09:55:07Z")
Gerald Durrell’s _My Family and Other Animals_ does it for me. ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/24 "2006-05-04T11:02:53Z")
I’m not an insanely active reader, but my choice would have to be **Lord Of The Flies**. Although Golding’s narration seemed cumbersome in parts, I still managed to find the description of the island wonderfully vivid (more memorable than the characters, although the island is arguably a character in itself). The searing heat and brilliance of the sun, the leisurely frolicking in the pool, the lush green foliage of the forest canopy, the daunting rock cliffs, the subdued yet spooky clearing - all colourful snapshots that are still embedded in my memory. Thinking about these scenes evokes strong childhood nostalgia - summers spent splashing and swimming outside, games of hide and seek in the woods etc. In particular, the discovery of the conch at the beginning strikes a specific chord within me. Thinking about it, I imagine a snapshot from the conch’s point of view, looking up from underneath the water as Ralph and Piggy stand over it, their outlines shimmering and blurred by the rippling of the surface, their voices muffled by the water as they contemplate the object before them. The bright glow of the sun saturates everything, like how when you are underwater and turn upside down, you seen an eternal expanse of white. If I were to direct of film remake, I’d definitely include such a shot. ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/25 "2006-05-04T11:17:58Z")
Obviously that should be “direct a film remake”. Grumble. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/26 "2006-05-04T12:09:12Z")
The book I’ve reread the most is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for lots of reasons. On the thread topic, the descriptions of the river, particularly at night, can always carry me away from wherever I am. ---
**Author:** ![MrFantsyPants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MrFantsyPants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFantsyPants)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/27 "2006-05-04T12:36:20Z")
Check out **This is The Way The World Ends** by James Morrow. A very powerful book about the insanity of the Cold way, and nuclear annihilation though the eyes of a normal guy who is just trying to keep his daughter safe. After the extinction of the human race, he is put on trial for his complicity in the arms race. Very, very well written. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/28 "2006-05-04T12:46:46Z")
Philip Roth. Just about everything he writes is like you’re right there. But particularly, _American Pastoral_. This guy is a genius. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/29 "2006-05-04T13:40:50Z")
How can I choose? I read about 4 books a week, but they’re mostly murder mysteries–which don’t work on my mind so that I get lost in a world like other fiction does. Books I read as a child for sure: _The Phantom Tollbooth_, _The Secret Garden_ and _A Little Princess_ for sure. Some of Roald Dalh’s stuff as well. As an adult-that’s a bit trickier. I tend to remember certain scenes or bits of dialogue more than whole books. I do like the Mary Stewart Arthurian trilogy alot. _The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night_ (the one about the autistic boy) stayed with me for a long time. Bits of Ursula LeGeune’s (sp?) writing, though I am not a huge sci-fi fan, _In This House of Brede_ by Rumer Godden evokes a whole world for me. Recent books would be _A Gracious Plenty_ by Sheri Reynolds, some of the Harry Potter books, _Stiff_ (even though nonficton, it opened up worlds to me). _The Prodigal Summer_ by Kingsolver, as well as _The Poisonwood Bible_. this thread makes me a bit sad. I am realizing that I haven’t gotten lost in a novel in a while. Time to get to the library. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/30 "2006-05-04T14:10:58Z")
Sitting in Holmes’ parlor, listening to him scrape away at his violin, while the London fog eddies and swirls outside the bow window… ---
**Author:** ![Rebecca\_DiMwitter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@Rebecca\_DiMwitter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebecca_DiMwitter)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/31 "2006-05-04T14:19:20Z")
eleanorrigby, I am reading “Stiff” right now, and I have to agree that it is exceptionally evocative…it draws you in, in a gruesome but riveting way. To me, it is like the first time I ever watched “Reservoir Dogs”. I was absolutely appalled at the violence (for that time, startling indeed) but I could not tear my eyes away for love nor money. I probably identify most in recent years with the characterizations Anne Tyler is able to evoke in her many novels…never been to Baltimore, but if I ever do go, I will feel supremely at home. I wonder about many of her characters after I am done with their stories, and I wish I could follow the rest of their lives! Thanks to everyone who responded and I am off to reserve any Flannery O’Connor that my local library may have! I usually consider myself decently-read, but I realize how short-sighted that really is, when I have never picked up one of her novels. –Beck ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/32 "2006-05-04T14:40:37Z")
Ooh! Maybe I’ll try her too. I need a good author. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/33 "2006-05-04T15:04:02Z")
[QUOTE=Rebecca DiMwitter] Thanks to everyone who responded and I am off to reserve any Flannery O’Connor that my local library may have! I usually consider myself decently-read, but I realize how short-sighted that really is, when I have never picked up one of her novels. –Beck [/QUOTE] Her short stories (which are compiled in a [single volume](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374515360/sr=8-1/qid=1146754914/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-5408454-2383309?%5Fencoding=UTF8)) are actually much better than her [novels](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0613175514/qid=1146754954/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5408454-2383309?s=books&v=glance&n=283155), imo. She also has a sort of “Vonnegut-verse” thing happening in that some of her characters drop in on other short stories. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/34 "2006-05-04T15:05:42Z")
Only three books have fully transported me with all senses to their world: “Watership Down” by Richard Adams “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury “Something Wicked This Way Come” by Ray Bradbury Bradbury’s ability to fully immerse you in the sensory experience of his characters and his incredible descriptive powers transport me in general. He is the author of some of my most treasured stories: “All of Summer in a Day,” “The Rocket Man,” and too many others to mention. But for full on Novels, those three took me there like nothing else I can remember reading. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/35 "2006-05-04T15:26:01Z")
MISSION, by Patrick Tilley. HELTER SKELTER by Vincent Bugliosi. BLOOD AND MONEY by Thomas Thompson. This one really hit me hard because I knew one of the “major players” very well. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/36 "2006-05-04T15:26:10Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] Gerald Durrell’s _My Family and Other Animals_ does it for me. [/QUOTE] I watched this on Masterpiece Theater a few weeks ago. Beautiful production, and an incentive for me to read the book. Did you see it? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/37 "2006-05-04T15:49:24Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] Something about Stephen King’s **The Stand** made me feel as if I had actually experienced it. The sequences in the desert were particularly vivid. I’ve never spent any substantial amount of time in a desert (other than driving through in a car), but King’s prose got under my skin and left little bits of sand there. [/QUOTE] King is sometimes criticized for overwriting – he can go on for pages describing a very brief and not too eventful sequence – but that is an excellent way to achieve this kind of sensory-immersion. ---
**Author:** ![Rebecca\_DiMwitter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@Rebecca\_DiMwitter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebecca_DiMwitter)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/38 "2006-05-04T16:15:45Z")
[QUOTE=ddgryphon] Only three books have fully transported me with all senses to their world: “Watership Down” by Richard Adams “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury “Something Wicked This Way Come” by Ray Bradbury Bradbury’s ability to fully immerse you in the sensory experience of his characters and his incredible descriptive powers transport me in general. He is the author of some of my most treasured stories: “All of Summer in a Day,” “The Rocket Man,” and too many others to mention. But for full on Novels, those three took me there like nothing else I can remember reading. [/QUOTE] I LOOOOVE me some Ray Bradbury, and have hard copies of each of those books you mention, plus “The October Country” and “Halloween Tree”. The other best sensory horror author IMHO is Shirley Jackson. I adore “The Sundial” (couldn’t get into it at first, but tried it again later and now I re-read it once a summer!), “We Have Always Lived In The Castle”, “The Haunting of Hill House”, & ALL of her short story collections. Was wowed by an obscure book of hers called “The Road Through The Wall” a couple summers ago…it’s a fast read and so utterly claustrophobic and alienating, with the most subtle and mounting terror in it. How that shy but brilliant mother of 4 strapping children could have had such strange and black turnings in her mind to produce these stories is just astounding to me. –Beck ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/39 "2006-05-04T16:32:31Z")
[QUOTE=Rebecca DiMwitter] I LOOOOVE me some Ray Bradbury, and have hard copies of each of those books you mention, plus “The October Country” and “Halloween Tree”. The other best sensory horror author IMHO is Shirley Jackson. I adore “The Sundial” (couldn’t get into it at first, but tried it again later and now I re-read it once a summer!), “We Have Always Lived In The Castle”, “The Haunting of Hill House”, & ALL of her short story collections. Was wowed by an obscure book of hers called “The Road Through The Wall” a couple summers ago…it’s a fast read and so utterly claustrophobic and alienating, with the most subtle and mounting terror in it. How that shy but brilliant mother of 4 strapping children could have had such strange and black turnings in her mind to produce these stories is just astounding to me. –Beck [/QUOTE] Okay, I’m looking those up – thanks! ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/40 "2006-05-04T16:43:05Z")
Two books that made me want to jump on a plane and go where they were set, although only one is a novel: Hemingway’s _A Moveable Feast_ about his days as a nobody in Paris. James Lee Burke’s _In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead_ and all his other books that I subsequently read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282.md?page=3)