Favorite novels

Allow me to narrow it down. The last dozen or so years my favorite author by far has been Cormac McCarthy.

Originally posted by badmoon
Allow me to narrow it down. The last dozen or so years my favorite author by far has been Cormac McCarthy.

He's probably the greatest living author I'm unlikely to get around to reading.

You might end up seing a film adaptation - The Road, No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian.

Originally posted by badmoon
You might end up seing a film adaptation - The Road, No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian.

Saw the middle one. Chilling. How does it compare to the book?

Originally posted by utherpendragon
I enjoyed the characters as well and her writing style. The racial element has nothing to do w/it as far as I am concerned in enjoying the book.

The movie, the Pulitzer Prize, and the reason it still finds its way into the high school English curriculum is all about the racial content. I'll be happy to concede that the book's merits, such as they are, may lie elsewhere.

I did not read this book in school. Perhaps I might have liked it when I was sixteen. But, I read a fair chunk of it aloud to help a struggling reader when I was in my early 40s, and I found it overrated at best. The kid had other resources and I had no inclination to continue the parts I had not read aloud.

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
He's probably the greatest living author I'm unlikely to get around to reading.

The liquor and guns must be locked tight when you start reading; he can be more depressing that Derrick Jensen.

Originally posted by Starrman
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Is that a novel?

Originally posted by Wulebgr
Is that a novel?

I thought by your previous post that you knew Pirsig?

I forgot to add Hermann Hesse's 'Demian' and Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead', both of which I adore.

Originally posted by Starrman
I thought by your previous post that you knew Pirsig?

Yep; well, not personally, but I've read Zen. I've also traveled some of the same roads, and eaten in one or two of the restaurants named. In Grangeville, Idaho, I put a new roof on the restaurant where Pirsig observed the angry waitress (or maybe I put a roof on the bank across the street--my memory is fuzzy on that point).

Although it reads a great deal like a novel, it is marketed as nonfiction. Then, that troublesome afterward in the paperback edition makes truth claims for the whole of the book.

I have no problem listing it among favorites, but inasmuch as growing numbers of our youth think every book is a novel, I thought it best to bring this question up.

Originally posted by Wulebgr
Yep; well, not personally, but I've read Zen. I've also traveled some of the same roads, and eaten in one or two of the restaurants named. In Grangeville, Idaho, I put a new roof on the restaurant where Pirsig observed the angry waitress (or maybe I put a roof on the bank across the street--my memory is fuzzy on that point).

Although it reads a gre ...[text shortened]... numbers of our youth think every book is a novel, I thought it best to bring this question up.

Ahh, I see. Yes, in as much as it is an explication of his philosophy and an approach to the analytic/synthetic boundary it does warrant a mention as a more academic book. However there is a very real and at times touching relationship with his son which lends itself to storytelling. I can enjoy it on both levels, much the same as the Fountainhead.

Originally posted by Starrman
I forgot to add Hermann Hesse's 'Demian' and Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead', both of which I adore.

I waded through Atlas Shrugged, which is far better writing than The Anthem, which has as its only virtue its brevity--my son and I both read his copy on the flight from Spokane to Denver when his teacher assigned the text in a senior literature class. I won't go into the absurdity of spending three weeks on this brief tract.

Ayn Rand's books are all political tracts, and her politics make Reagan's appear humane in comparison. Atlas Shrugged is supposedly her masterpiece. But, the first sentence of Atlas Shrugged shows up frequently: http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/search.php?authorname=MacSwain

So, I ask, if I find her writing predictable, the characters shallow, and her politics reprehensible, what reason do I have for diving into The Fountainhead?

Originally posted by Starrman
Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead'

Oh puke. Why?

Originally posted by Wulebgr
I waded through Atlas Shrugged, which is far better writing than The Anthem, which has as its only virtue its brevity--my son and I both read his copy on the flight from Spokane to Denver when his teacher assigned the text in a senior literature class. I won't go into the absurdity of spending three weeks on this brief tract.

Ayn Rand's book ...[text shortened]... nd her politics reprehensible, what reason do I have for diving into The Fountainhead?

I cannot tell you. I have not read Atlas Shrugged and Anthem is a children's book, I cannot fathom why it would be studied for 3 weeks. I find Rand's notion of objectivism as a philosophical view most interesting. I think that her characters stem from this and if you dislike her ethics it is unlikely you will find her characters or stories welcoming. I'm not sure what else I can say to endear Fountainhead to you, I suspect any enjoyment would be precluded by your opinion of previous readings.

Originally posted by Starrman
I cannot tell you. I have not read Atlas Shrugged and Anthem is a children's book, I cannot fathom why it would be studied for 3 weeks.

Such is the state of American schools, sadly.

I'll grant that Objectivism is interesting, but only theoretically. Lots of fiction writers advance political or philosophical agendas in their novels; they often fail to construct believable characters. Ayn Rand is better than CS Lewis in this respect, but still far from a great novelist. James Baldwin never strayed far from politics in his novels, despite his efforts to do so, and his characters are rich and full.