Can anyone recommend some good fiction?

[J_Partyka]

I've only recently (and rather belatedly) developed an interest in fiction. I've always been an avid reader, but almost exclusively of non-fiction material.

Slowly, over the past few years, certain books have gotten through to me, and my interest has gradually grown. A friend recommended High Fidelity to me some years ago (this was before the film was made), and I enjoyed it immensely. I re-read that one once a year, usually in just a few nights. That led me to all of Nick Hornby's other books, and lately I've been reading things by Tom Perotta and Lorrie Moore as well, among others.

I'd like to find more to enjoy. What are your favorite works of fiction?

[Patrick M]

I pretty much swore off fiction after a high school AP English teacher taught me that my opinion was always wrong.

[J_Partyka]

I pretty much swore off fiction after a high school AP English teacher taught me that my opinion was always wrong.

Truth be told, a similar experience I had is pretty much what's kept me away from fiction up to now.

I was actually kicked out of AP English and put into a Creative Writing class after I refused to read Wuthering Heights. I was better off in CW anyway ...

[Rob P]

I'm not generally a fan of bestsellers, but I read Open Season by C. J. Box after my wife recommended it to me, and it was good. The protagonist is a game warden from Wyoming, which makes the setting fresh and innovative.

I just finished reading An Innocent Millionaire by Stephen Vicizency. He's a second language English writer, and I tend to gravitate to writers who write in English as a second language, such as Nabokov and Conrad. Vicizency's novel is not one to enjoy, as it's filled with unsavory characters and difficult decisions, but it is insightful and memorable.

[Xenu]

I was actually kicked out of AP English and put into a Creative Writing class after I refused to read Wuthering Heights. I was better off in CW anyway ...

You refused? Why didn't you just listen to Kate Bush's Cliff's Notes?

College has killed my desire to read most fiction, although this might just be a temporary after-effect of being ordered to read 200 pages of Bordieu between classes. That said: Ira Levin! Stephen King! Sologub!

[J_Partyka]

You refused? Why didn't you just listen to Kate Bush's Cliff's Notes?

I genuinely didn't give a toss at that point, I guess. I was completely unaware of Kate Bush at the time as well ... too bad, if she could have equipped me to fake my way through it!

[damianm]

I don't know just how well it might work in English, but there's a novel by Argentinian-born author Julio Cortázar, called Rayuela, which I've read many times over the last years.

I find it really evocative and um.. you know, just about perfect. I'd recommend it to anyone.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Am ... +Hopscotch

Cortázar also has many excellent short stories, but they're spread across many books and again, I don't know what's available in English.

Then there's Borges, but he often makes me feel like I'm reading an Advanced Calculus textbook.

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

Pick up a copy of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O'Toole. Classic.

[Rspaight]

Grab any compilation of Harlan Ellison short stories -- there are a couple good ones in print, I think. If that doesn't reawaken your hunger for good writing, nothing will.

Ryan

[J_Partyka]

Thanks for the suggestions, all; please keep 'em coming if you have more. I'm making note of all of these.

[J_Partyka]

Grab any compilation of Harlan Ellison short stories -- there are a couple good ones in print, I think. If that doesn't reawaken your hunger for good writing, nothing will.

It looks like this one is about to come out. A good place to start, maybe?

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

Philip K. Dick is always a wise choice as well. Start with A Scanner Darkly or The Man in the High Castle and you'll be hungry for more.

[Rspaight]

It looks like this one is about to come out. A good place to start, maybe?

That would be excellent.

Ryan

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

I've somehow never read any of Harlan Ellison's work. A friend of mine used to rave him about him constantly. Of course, he's also obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft, whose fiction bores me to tears.

Back in my grad-student days (when I was forced to read all of the cliched "canonical" works), I spent a lot of my free time reading William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard and the Marquis de Sade. I wouldn't recommend any of them to someone looking for light entertainment, though...

[krabapple]

Is there a books thread on the Intenet that *doesn't* ever become a discussion of sci-fi?

Asking for recommendations for fiction is like asking for recommendations for food. I mean, there's just *so much out there*. The idea of people who never read fiction frankly appalls me..

Me, I went through a big William Trevor kick a few years ago (you know him from such films adaptations as "Felicia's Journey'...RIGHT??). Read everything I could get my hands on. Beautiful stuff. Start with any recent short story collection of his.

'Riddely Walker' by Russell Hoban is still astonishing.

One author with popular as well as critical cred who always does a good job, IME, is Margaret Atwood.
'The Robber Bride' was a lot of fun...a real page-turner.

If you like books about music-obsessed people, there's one from a year or two ago set in the mid-70's in the UK, and is the only book I know where the death of prog rock and the birth of punk is an actual plot point. It's called 'The Rotter's Club' by Jonathan Coe. (Alas, the sequel, 'The Closed Circle', is not very good)

Chekhov's short stories are almost too fucking brilliant to bear.

JM Coatzee's 'Disgrace' : devastating.

Personally for sci-fi /fantasy these days I stick to the highly mannered stylists. Jack Vance is my perennial favorite. For all the flaws and repetitiveness, there's just nothing quite like his stuff. It's not as boring as Lovecraft ;>


I dunno, this seems like a scattershot drop in the bucket...there's just so many books and authors out there...I would suggest reading the Sunday NY Times book review, and noting books that seem interesting. Also Michael Dirda's column in the Washignton Post sunday book review often discusses older books and authors in such a way as to make me want to check them out.