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Fiction Recommendations .

Hassan

By Hassan
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Hassan

Hassan

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I'm trying to start reading fiction again. Most literature I read is translated from Russia or the former Yugoslavia. I really haven't read fiction from the English speaking world since 12th grade, but fiction originally written in English is what I want to focus on. I really liked Beowulf and Shakespeare. I disliked Chaucer, English Romantics, and the American transcendentalists. I really like Mark Twain's essays but don't remember enjoying Tom Sawyer or Huckelberry Finn and I thought To Kill a Mockingbird was ok. The only two authors I've found so far that I like are Salman Rushdie (Midnight's Children) and JD Salinger.

Based on this and your own personal experience, what do people recommend?

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BG45

BG45

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Turtledove's alternate histories are well written, lengthy, and don't make allowances when it comes to reducing the subject matter into mediocre terms. :) But the man is so obsessed with the Civil War and World War Two that it's nuts.

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Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

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Personally, my favorite work of fiction is the Brothers Karamazov. I know you said you were looking for English literature and this is Russian Literature but it is simply amazing and I don't have superlatives to recommend it highly enough. Also, I Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was good as well. This was written in English but Joseph Conrad's first language was polish, even though he is considered an English novelist. It is amazing, especially considering this man is writing in his second language.

Edited by Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
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Era Might

Era Might

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"Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh (which is probably my favorite novel). I love Waugh's fiction...which is funny, because I'd probably have nothing common with the man, except for our common belief in Christ. If he were any other writer, Waugh's writing style might be unbearable to me...but from Waugh, it's just Waugh...he is unapologetically himself. "Brideshead Revisited" is a great novel about sinners...that's the best way I can summarize it.

I love Charles Dickens. "Bleak House" is a fun read.

I love Nathaniel Hawthorne as well...he's sort of the American Charles Dickens to me. His short stories are great.

"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison is a great novel. It's well known as a novel about being black in America in the mid-20th century, but it's also great just as a story of maturing as a young man.

"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is another great novel that I really like.

Edited by Era Might
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Hassan

Hassan

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[quote name='Winchester' timestamp='1281998900' post='2158502']
"Earth in the Balance" by Al Gore.
[/quote]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/2367515373_515ff7a325.jpg[/img]

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ThePenciledOne

ThePenciledOne

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What have you read? I am currently reading, "Crime and Punishment" By Fyodor Dostoyevsky and love it.

And most of Ayn Rand's stuff too.

I really like William Faulkner's stuff.

"The Great Gatsby" from Scott F. Fitzgerald is a favorite of mine.

Edited by ThePenciledOne
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ThePenciledOne

ThePenciledOne

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[quote name='Winchester' timestamp='1282007280' post='2158582']
Clockwork was damned near nihilistic.
[/quote]

hehe I liked it.

Didn't mean to edit it out Winichester, but I forgot that Burgess wasn't American, though personally he may have well been.

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Marie-Therese

Marie-Therese

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[u]Letters from the Earth[/u] by Twain was a personal favorite of mine. I happen to have a particular affinity for that colloquial sort of voice in fiction, so I loved both [u]Huckleberry Finn[/u] and [u]Tom Sawyer[/u], and [u]Mockingbird[/u] is my favorite book ever.

Is there a specific genre of English fiction you are looking for? If you have any interest in plays, I recommend anything by Edward Albee. [i]Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe[/i] is simply brilliant, and [i]Zoo Story[/i] is great as well. In the play genre, I also recommend Tennessee Williams.

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Hassan

Hassan

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[quote name='ThePenciledOne' timestamp='1282007129' post='2158578']
What have you read? I am currently reading, "Crime and Punishment" By Fyodor Dostoyevsky and love it.

And most of Ayn Rand's stuff too.

I really like William Faulkner's stuff.

"The Great Gatsby" from Scott F. Fitzgerald is a favorite of mine.
[/quote]
I really liked Crime and Punishment. Since several people have brought up Dostoevsky, I'd like to recommend the recommend the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations. Everyone I know agrees that they are the best. They are not perfect. For example when it says that Raskolnikov realizes that Sonya was a 'religious fanatic'. That should be translated as "Holy Fool" which has a very different connotation in Russian Orthodox culture. Or when the man called him a 'murderer'. The particular word Dostoevsky uses is specifically one that a peasant would use. A lot of the norod (this is a Russian word that means like 'the people' but specifically the pure ethnic Russian people) loving, Slavophile themes get downplayed in
translations.

A girl I liked loved 'The Fountainhead'. I got to page 200 and had to stop. I hated it, to be honestly. I'll try the other authors. I haven't really been exposed to them.

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ThePenciledOne

ThePenciledOne

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[quote name='Hassan' timestamp='1282008935' post='2158602']
I really liked Crime and Punishment. Since several people have brought up Dostoevsky, I'd like to recommend the recommend the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations. Everyone I know agrees that they are the best. They are not perfect. For example when it says that Raskolnikov realizes that Sonya was a 'religious fanatic'. That should be translated as "Holy Fool" which has a very different connotation in Russian Orthodox culture. Or when the man called him a 'murderer'. The particular word Dostoevsky uses is specifically one that a peasant would use. A lot of the norod (this is a Russian word that means like 'the people' but specifically the pure ethnic Russian people) loving, Slavophile themes get downplayed in
translations.

A girl I liked loved 'The Fountainhead'. I got to page 200 and had to stop. I hated it, to be honestly. I'll try the other authors. I haven't really been exposed to them.
[/quote]

I'll have to check those translations out. Dostoevsky, I am finding is really really good.

Try reading Anthem, its short and simple, from Ayn Rand, I like most of her stuff.

Good luck Hassan, I am sure you will find something that you will like. : )

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Wikitiki

Wikitiki

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Ayn Rand is the bomb. [i]Atlas Shrugged[/i] all the way! [i]Anthem [/i]is my second favorite.

Also, Adam Rapp. Just... Adam Rapp. I believe [i]The Copper Elephant[/i] is my favorite. You kind of have to have a good amount of patience for slang, though, except for maybe [i]Missing the Piano[/i]. I have no idea why I like his writing, I just do.

Edited by Wikitiki
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