Re: 20/20 list
Colin (colin@cpink.demon.co.uk)
Fri, 22 Oct 1999 09:21:02 +0100
Top 20. I've had to exclude poetry and plays from the list otherwise it
would have been imposssible to choose.
1. Henri Alain-Fournier, Le Grand Meaulne.
Beautiful and mysterious. One of the great novels about innocence and
experience. Should appeal to readers who love Catcher.
2. James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room.
Set in post-war Paris, where Baldwin lived for a while, a young bisexual
man has to decide who he loves and learn how to live with his guilty
feelings of betrayal. Baldwin writes beautifully rhythmic prose, almost
like poetry. He has the most wonderful punctuation of any writer.
3. Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot.
An English doctor pursues his obsession with Flaubert following his
adulterous wife's death: ring any bells?
4. Samuel Beckett, Molloy/Malone Dies/Unnamable.
Cheating here, but they are usually available in one volume. Completely
sui generis; says everything worth saying about the human condition.
Very funny and very bleak.
5. Heinrich Boll, Group Portrait with Lady.
Life and love in Germany during and in the aftermath of WWII. If you
want to know what it felt like to live through such a terrible time this
will show you.
6. J.L.Carr, A Month in the Country.
Charming short novel about a young man recovering from shellshock after
WWI uncovering a medieval wall painting in a parish church. Gentle and
beautiful.
7. Jonathan Coe, What a Carve Up!
Says everything you need to know about the greedy Thatcherite eighties
in England. Very funny and ghastly at the same time. Rips the mask
from the smug face of English society.
8. Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers.
This book probably proves it is possible to write great work while under
the influence of drugs. It's the only explanation.
9. A.E.Ellis, The Rack.
A young man suffering from TB goes through hell in a remote sanatorium.
Falls in love with fellow patient. Persecuted by sadistic doctors. A
gruelling mystical read.
10. Shusako Endo, Scandal.
A respectable Japanese writer is haunted by the debauched activities of
his doppelganger: but is it him all along?
11. Mary Gaitskill, Two Girls, Fat and Thin.
Two very different women meet and discover both of their lives have been
warped by childhood sexual abuse. Gaitskill writes so powerfully the
reader inhabits the characters, an uncomfortable experience, but one
full of insight. Masterly attention to all the details that make it
real.
12. Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter.
Brilliant novel of moral angst. Set in Sierra Leone in WWII, a lonely
man has an affair and must face up to his beliefs and his actions.
13. Alasdair Grey, 1982 Janine.
Very funny and moving novel about lost love, regrets. An alcoholic
itinerant security system sales man tells himself pornographic stories
while drinking himself into a stupor in a hotel room. But his mind
keeps interrupting him with poignant memories from his past. Brilliant
use of typography to create 'special effects'.
14. Yasunari Kawabata, Thousand Cranes.
Underneath the placid surface of the tea ceremony all the machinations
of the human heart are gradually revealed. Beautiful, poetic and
allusive writing.
15. Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy.
In beautiful rhythmic prose, as hard edged as a crystal, Kincaid exposes
middle class America through the eyes of a young West Indian girl.
16. Haruki Murakami, South of the border, West of the Sun.
A mysterious and graceful love story.
17. Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past.
Probably the greatest novel of the 20thc. Lasts forever but it's so
beautiful you want it to go on forever. Meticulously dissects human
behaviour. The greatest psychology book ever written.
18. Raymond Radiguet, The Devil in the Flesh.
But brevity is beautiful too, and this proves it. A young boy has an
illicit affair with a young married woman while her husband is at the
front in WWI. Wonderfully clear, precise and lean prose. Every
aspiring writer should read it to learn how to cut out unnecessary
words.
19. J.D.Salinger, Nine Stories.
Some of the best short stories ever written.
20. Ken Saro-Wiwa, Lemona's Tale.
If Charles Dickens was reincarnated in the 20thc it was as Ken Saro-
Wiwa. Fabulous plot, beautifully written, a deeply moving account of
the exploitation of a young girl. Ken Saro-Wiwa was murdered by the
vile military dictatorship in Nigeria for his stance on the
human/environmental rights of the Ogoni people. Uncannily he wrote a
short story, called 'On the Death of Ken Saro-Wiwa', which predicts his
own death.
--
Colin