Summer Reading
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Tristan Welles
Tristan Welles
I'll second this recommendation. A very enjoyable book, though for some reason the author's name sticks in my memory as 'Ray' Monk.
His description of Wittgenstein living as a simple village teacher, and the subsequent disillusionment, turned what could have been a banal section of the book into one of its more fascinating sections.
I had just ordered the set from the library, spurred by the recent NY Times article on his influence.
I got into one of his purported "descendants" before really knowing that it was he who had blazed the trail for their availability: Henning Mankell. The Wallander series is great. This weird sense of Noir-ish detective drama seen through a veil of Scandinavian bleakness. Like if Sam Spade was moving through an all Eero Saarinen designed set.
I'll also through in a plug for Michael Chabon. _Kavalier and Clay_ is required reading, IMHO. Also, _Yiddish Policeman's Union_ and _Gentlemen of the Road_ are incredible worlds. And even though _Summerland_ gets classified as "Young Adult" there's an innocence there that I think makes it wonderful beach reading.
Letham's _Motherless Brooklyn_ and _Fortress of Solitude_ are classic, too.
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
I think his name sticks in your memory that way because you are remembering correctly. Ray Monk.
One more addition, for those who liked A Suitable Boy, and those who don't know it, though not a comedy: A Fine Balance by Rohan Mistry, a novel beautiful enough to make one cry, also set in India and concerning its class conflicts registered through ostensibly domestic relationships.
Nicolas Mestre
Nicolas Mestre
This might have been the most disturbingly depressing book I have ever read. I don't think I can second it as summer reading.
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
I certainly understand this response. Beauty is harder than its reputation allows. But it never does betray the heart that loves it.
Well, I did at one time have aspirations to be a literary journalist.
More good suggestions from me - "An American Romance" by John Casey (he of "Spartina" NBA - er, national book award - fame). Although the book's plot is about a couple and their relationship, the story is about the relationship each has with his/her vocation. She's manipulative in a purposeful way - she's a theater director and she feeds on ascertaining how moving people around affects the dynamic of a situation. He's a carpenter as I recall (I read this book a loooong time ago - when it came out and was in hardback - I remember I had a secretarial job that had grown from part time during college to full time the summer before law school and I was on loan to some agency that had me sitting in an isolated place without much to do - so I mostly read this novel.)
Hey, how about "The Sot-Weed Factor" by John Barth? Or "Daniel Martin [Martyn?] by John Fowles - two great and engrossing novels - or here's another "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry, just reissued with a long forward by him. If you haven't read that, you are missing the perfect beach novel!
Bill Lundstrom
Bill Lundstrom
the kurt wallander series is indeed very good. best read in order. a bit depressing but good reading.
i hope i'm not over selling the steig larsson triology but, don't start them unless you have a day or so where you won't be interrupted.
also, if you like these, you will also like tanya french's, "into the woods", and "the likeness"
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Agatha Christie.
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
To each his own but I'm in the camp of those who don't care who killed Roger Ackroyd.
Cory Cartwright
Cory Cartwright
Perez-Reverte is fantastic summer reading. Also in the same vein is Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Zachary Ross
Zachary Ross
How about two nostalgic island-themed books for summer reading: The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, by G. B. Edwards (set in 20th-century Guernsey), and The Leopard, by Giuseppe di Lampedusa (19th-c. Sicily). Both are simply wonderful.
Saina Nieminen
Saina Nieminen
Anyone read Pamuk's most recent, The Museum of Innocence?
Bill Lundstrom
Bill Lundstrom
that's a great book.
For classical music buffs, Frank Conroy's Stop-Time is amazing. His early death was a real loss to the world of letters. A wonderful, wonderful writer and a work of profound humanity.
On the other hand, Barth's Sop-Weed Factor (mentioned by Maureen also) is so outrageously perfect summer reading, so completely off-the-wall 1960s-style funny and clever that I might suggest that first.
Thanks so much for the Ray Monk reference. I'll follow up with that, especially as I see in Wikipedia that his most recent book is, How to Play the Ukulele. Wittgenstein, who, along with his concert pianist brother Paul, had perfect pitch and believed that serious music got corrupted by the time of Brahms, would likely appreciate the irony that his biographer plays the Ukulele!
On the other hand, Barth's Sop-Weed Factor (mentioned by Maureen also) is so outrageously perfect summer reading, so completely off-the-wall 1960s-style funny and clever that I might suggest that first.
Thanks so much for the Ray Monk reference. I'll follow up with that, especially as I see in Wikipedia that his most recent book is, How to Play the Ukulele. Wittgenstein, who, along with his concert pianist brother Paul, had perfect pitch and believed that serious music got corrupted by the time of Brahms, would likely appreciate the irony that his biographer plays the Ukulele!
Tristan Welles
Tristan Welles
a paraphrase of Monk quoting Wittgenstein (Ludwig) 'In Brahms I begin to hear the machinery.' And famously, or rather semi-famously, Ludwig didn't think much of Beethoven's 5th piano concerto, specifically the opening.