Posted by Destroyo on November 13, 2003, at 20:59:30
I like to read fiction that's funny, poignant, and suspenseful, but I'll settle for two out of the three. The poignancy is the rarest find, surely hardest for the author to achieve. So easy to take a wrong turn on your way to poignantville, and end up instead in maudlinburg.
I like fantasy novels, but not the sword n' sorcery kind, those of the "magical realism" school. The milieu is recognizably our familiar Earth, but strange things start to happen. I like Jonathan Carroll a lot, read two of his, *Bones of the Moon*, and *The Marriage of Sticks*
Recently read a novel by Elizabeth Hand *Black Light*, now that one blew my mind. Fascinating, and very, very moving. The characters are wonderfully compelling. Read a Kinky Friedman mystery *Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned*, really loved it, it satified all three of my values. Kinky's very popular, I read one of his novels before, it was funny and suspenseful, no doubt, but light, not especiallay moving emotionally. Kill Two Birds is also funny and suspenseful, but it's very moving and poignant too; after reading the previous novel, I was surprised. Lastly, if you dare, try to tackle Mark Danielewski's mondo bizarro horror novel *House of Leaves* The prose is EXTREMELY dense. At times, it's like trying to tunnel through granite with a popsicle stick. But believe me, I regretted not a minute I spent reading it. If you can get through the first twenty pages without defenestrating the damn thing, it's a hell of a wild ride. You'll never say to yourself when you recall it, even if you live to be 110, "I read this book once, really good, now what was the name of that book, who was the author; Oh, I forget!" It'll be burned into your memory forever.
poster:Destroyo
thread:279549
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20031113/msgs/279549.html