First in what will hopefully be a continuing series of dispatches, Adam Hill regales the readership with an annotated shortlist of some of his prized authors- an op/ed entry with an olive branch positive spin. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but many of the names are new to me. And with summer swiftly approaching (although the spontaneous snow-dusting the Twin Cities endured yesterday seems to suggest otherwise) the harvest will likely serve as a welcome primer for humid days spent swinging in the backyard hammock. What’s it mean exactly when your libro list is longer than your grocery one? Still, I’m a long way from a Dolphyesque legumes & rice diet and have the spare tireage to prove it. Note to self: time to load up the MuVo with Art Pepper’s Galaxy Recordings and hit the west bank of the Mississippi running. But enough of my blathering…
WRITERS’ WRITERS
They are the unsung, the underappreciated, the writers whose books rarely sold many copies, rarely won any prizes, but who are often name-checked by famous writers. Sometimes their work has lapsed out of print, sometimes they lived off a little mad cash from the movie people, but mostly they’ve been neglected. Here is a list of some of the best contemporary American writers’ writers, and what I think is the best book from each. Some are deceased; some are still living and writing in relative obscurity or just north of it. You should be able to find their books in the better used bookstores.
James Salter: LIGHT YEARS. A beautiful stylist. Both macho and romantic. Was a fighter pilot in the Korean War, and his first two books are about that experience. Wrote some great late 60’s early 70’s movie scripts like “Downhill Racer.” Also wrote a wonderful erotic novel called A SPORT AND A PASTIME that actually got reissued in the Modern Library series.
Gina Berriault: WOMEN IN THEIR BEDS. She won a few big prizes at the very end of her life. Concise, precise, a realist of the after effects. (Her story “The Stone Boy” was a fine movie with Robert Duvall). Such crystalline insights about women: “The flattery was demanding something of Dolores. She couldn’t reject it because she needed even flattery’s imitation of praise.”
Richard Yates: REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. Devastating depictions of suburban delusions. The model for Elaine’s father on “Seinfeld”—Larry David dated one of Yates’ daughters. He also worked as a speechwriter for Bobby Kennedy. You read Yates’ books with a slowly accumulating sense of dread, knowing these people will smash up their lives. And they’re autobiographical.
Frederick Exley: A FAN’S NOTES. One of the greatest sports-themed novels is also a fictionalized memoir of drinking, reading, mental breakdowns, and other sedentary thrills. Brings you into his dual obsessions with Frank Gifford and Edmund Wilson. And if you’ve ever wondered what insulin shock treatment is like, this book describes it for you.
Joy Williams: STATE OF GRACE. Loopy, weird, lyrical. Effortlessly eccentric. Somehow every story and novel she’s ever written has some reference to the abuse of animals. She also wrote one of the great anti-hunting essays, first published in of all places, Esquire.
Denis Johnson: JESUS’ SON. Perhaps the most widely admired living American writer by other writers. His poetry too, particularly THE INCOGNITO LOUNGE, is beloved. Most of the stories in JESUS’ SON end with memorable anti-epiphanies, such as this one: “It was raining. Gigantic ferns leaned over us. The forest drifted down a hill. I could hear a creek rushing down among rocks. And you, you ridiculous people, you expect me to help you.”
Barry Hannah: AIRSHIPS. Crafter of some the language’s finest sentences. Such as: “In Mississippi it is difficult to achieve a vista.” or “As a thought of consolation, when you see a beautiful woman, just remember: somebody’s tired of her.”
Honorable Mentions:
Leonard Gardner: FAT CITY. His only book, made into a good John Huston movie. Boxing and day labor in Stockton, CA. He went on to become a very successful TV writer and producer (“NYPD Blue”).
Theodore Weezner: THE CAR THIEF. One of the great bleak books of all time. Extreme teenage alienation and the consolations of grand theft auto.
Stanley Elkin: THE FRANCHISER. King of the one-liners. Made tragedy funny again. There’s a scene (from THE MAGIC KINGDOM) where a group of terminally ill children meet with Queen Elizabeth and one asks her a question she finds ridiculously obvious, and the Queen responds rhetorically, “Does the Pope shit in the woods?”
John Hawkes: THE LIME TWIG. A much admired experimentalist; highly influential teacher at Brown. Creepy, dream-like narratives. Subversive imagery.
Paula Fox: DESPERATE CHARACTERS. Rediscovered and brought to some attention by Jonathan Franzen. Also, she’s Courtney Love’s grandmother!
Stephen Dixon: INTERSTATE. Master of the obsessive narrative. If possible, read this book while measuring your heart-rate.
Stephen Wright: GOING NATIVE. (No, not that Stephen Wright.) This book is a violent tour de force, darkly funny, and utterly relevant. Don DeLillo calls it “a slasher classic.”
- Adam Hill reviews books for The Los Angeles Times among other places.
I'll second James Salter and Richard Yates, as well as the books Adam singled out to start with, I just ordered Salter's new book of short stories.
I'll add (in a similar vein) David Gates, Jernigan and Preston Falls are both slightly underrecognized classics.
Posted by: jon abbey at April 28, 2005 8:57 PMJon, I was disappointed in the new Salter collection. The stories often lack that Salter lyricism. His earlier one, Dusk, is filled with gems. You'll have to tell me what you think.
Posted by: Adam Hill at April 29, 2005 7:23 AMRead Salter's 'Solo Faces' many years ago and always enjoyed him (including 'Light Years'). Wondering if you also enjoy earlier Jim Harrison, specifically things like 'Sundog'.
Seconds or thirds on Yates and Hawkes.
Posted by: Brian Olewncik at April 29, 2005 7:38 AMBrian,
SOLO FACES was first a screenplay that Salter wrote for Redford, but he had become a moviestar by then and would never again play a dislikable character (as he did in Salter's "Downhill Racer.") So Salter turned it into a novel.
I've never loved Harrison as much as I'm told I should. SUNDOG was actually the first one I read by him, and all I remember is liking the stuff about constructing the dams. The novella, "The Woman Lit By Fireflies" is the only Harrison that made an impact.
Posted by: Adam Hill at April 29, 2005 8:14 AM"Jon, I was disappointed in the new Salter collection. The stories often lack that Salter lyricism. His earlier one, Dusk, is filled with gems. You'll have to tell me what you think."
damn, I wish I'd known that, the only review I saw really liked it.
I really loved Light Years, thought A Sport and A Pastime was fine, and I keep bringing Solo Faces on trips and not getting more than a page or two in.
his autobiography, Burning the Days, is also very good, definitely recommended. I wish he had more great stuff out there!
I'm with you on Salter, Exley, Yates, and Gardner.
"The Lime Twig" is Hawkes' best by far, although there's not much competition. The scene where the boarder circles his eyes with lipstick and slips into his landlords' bed remains unsettling a quarter century after reading it.
Given the titles on your list, I'm surprised by the absence of Tom McGuane's "92 in the Shade," one of the best American novels of the 1970s.
Posted by: Joe Farara at April 29, 2005 12:59 PMJoe, "92 in the Shade" is an excellent book, you're right on. McGuane has had far more commercial success than the others on the list. But he's often a marvellous writer.
Posted by: Adam Hill at April 29, 2005 1:39 PMI keep meaning to read more McGuane stuff; the one I did read, the title of which escapes me (painter returns to Montana from NYC to reunite w/old girlfriend and sort out crazy family stuff) was great.
My favorite Harrison book is A Good Day To Die; it's one of the few books I return to every couple of years (among the others are The Great Gatsby, The Long Goodbye and Bret Ellis's Glamorama).
Loved Going Native, and always meant to pick up Wright's Meditations In Green. Anybody read it? Is it worth my time?
Posted by: Phil at April 29, 2005 1:57 PMphil, i'd say MEDITATIONS IN GREEN is among the handful of best novels about Viet Nam.
Posted by: Adam Hill at April 29, 2005 7:52 PMAdam:
Nicely done. You're serving in the same role the Dow Mossman documentary provided-reviving names that lapse into cyclical black holes.
Undeservedly ignored great fiction writers are of an improbably large number. I share your enthusiasm for Berriault (every story in that collection is at least very good, some stopped my mind). Exley's A Fan's Notes is re-read every several years (the last two in the trilogy forgettable, for the most part). When Light Years was published, I purchased copies for at least three friends.
I would add to the inarguably acquired taste of Hawke's work both Second Skin & The Blood Oranges, each with a disturbing & searing image or two of their own. I know readers of broad & exemplary taste who hate Hawkes' work.
Also worth noting, stunning novels that quickly died on the vine, to be revived several times since their auspicious beginnings,are Henry Roth's novel of New York, Some Call It Sleep, and the completely neglected family saga by Larry Woiwode, Beyond The Bedroom Wall. Highly recommended.
I diverge where Hannah is concerned (entertaining, not great), add mad props for Jim Harrison's body of work (his weakest, and I'd count the last couple among them, more absorbing than many contemporaries' most hyped). I spent a frustrating week searching for Joy William's stuff in area book stores several years ago. She is, as you say, singularly odd & powerful.
One more: Gayl Jones. Find her & read her as soon as possible. I'd suggest Coregidora & Faith Healer, the former all the more impressive for being her first novel.
Good spark, Adam.
Posted by: Jesse at April 29, 2005 8:33 PMThanks much, Jesse.
I haven't read Hawkes in quite some time, but there was a nice essay about him in last month's The Believer that makes me want to go back to him. Good mentioning Call It Sleep. I think Roth took another 50 years to write another. And I'll have to get to Woiwode and Gayl Jones, thanks for the tips.
btw, I've been re-reading all of Joy Williams because I'm trying to start a long essay about her for The Believer--what a bizzaro and discomforting world is hers. Such an original mind. Those of you unfamiliar, pick up one of her story collections, best place to start.
Posted by: Adam Hill at April 30, 2005 6:57 AMAnybody ever read James McConkey?
Posted by: walto at April 30, 2005 7:15 AMI only made it through the first couple of pages of To a Distant Island which brought to mind Chekhov's remark to Bunin: "One should only set out to write when one is as cold as ice." :)
Posted by: c.l. at April 30, 2005 10:29 AMfull page rave about Salter's latest in the LA Times Book Review. Hopefully, I'm the only one disappointed with it. He's a wonderful writer.
Posted by: Adam Hill at May 1, 2005 9:13 AMGlad to hear that someone stuck up for John Hawkes's 'Second Skin', a terrific book. Thanks, Jesse.
All these realists, though, Adam. Howzabout, on a different tack, Gilbert Sorrentino ('Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things'), Robert Coover ('The Universal Baseball Association'), and Ben Marcus ('The Age of Wire and String').
I hope, as a European, that we're going to hear something about the Europeans eventually. Not all good writing in the 20th century was made in America, though much of it was.
Posted by: Brian Marley at May 1, 2005 9:18 AMwhy don't you do the equivalent piece for Europe, Brian? I'd love to see that.
I just started what promises to be a superb book last night, The Melancholy of Resistance by Hungarian Laszlo Krasznahorkai, the book that Bela Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies is based on (LK co-wrote the screenplay with Tarr), and also the book that our own Nirav Soni named his blog after.
Posted by: jon abbey at May 1, 2005 9:43 AMBrian Marley: "All these realists, though, Adam. Howzabout, on a different tack, Gilbert Sorrentino ('Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things'), Robert Coover ('The Universal Baseball Association'), and Ben Marcus ('The Age of Wire and String').
I hope, as a European, that we're going to hear something about the Europeans eventually. Not all good writing in the 20th century was made in America, though much of it was."
Yes, I do like quite a lot of what's been called the new experimentalism (Ben Marcus among them), and will write about them soon enough.
Maybe my favorite under-known novel by a "European" that appeared over the last 30 years or so is THE OGRE by Michel Tournier. It's a masterpiece. Nearly as great as TIN DRUM. Another that left a big impact: MAN IN THE HOLOCENE by Max Frisch. Also, George Konrad has written some great under-appreciated novels like THE LOSER.
Great to hear you'll tackle some Euroscribblers, Adam. And I agree with you about the Tournier novel 'The Ogre' (originally published in Britain with the title 'The Erl-King'). Opinions on the merits of Gert Hofmann's books would be greatly appreciated. I hugely enjoy his work; in particular, 'Our Conquest' and 'Balzac's Horse and other stories'. Perhaps, on another page, I'll get to say why.
Sorry for dragging you away from North America and its literary riches, I'm done. Let the thread resume . . .
Posted by: Brian Marley at May 1, 2005 1:07 PMOops, have I jumped the gun . . . Adam, will you also include European experimentalists? If not, I'll happily do as Jon suggested and post some opinions of my own.
Whichever way it falls . . .
Posted by: Brian Marley at May 1, 2005 1:11 PMBrian, I would love to hear more about the writers that interest you. For instance, I do not know Gert Hofman. Please tell more.
I look forward to these exchanges from you and others too.
jon, how is the 'melancholy of resistence?'
will make a book order next week and want to know if that's one i should be getting.
already Joe Milazzo and Brian Marley got me to search out a few others i wouldn't have known about without the tips--keep the tips coming, please!
Posted by: Adam Hill at May 4, 2005 2:30 PMI haven't been able to get too far into it because I came down with a really bad cold a few days ago, but the first 60-70 pages are very impressive. I'll point Nirav to this thread, I'm sure he'll be happy to rhapsodize about it...
Posted by: jon abbey at May 4, 2005 7:45 PM"The Melancholy of Resistance" has a special place in my heart, as I read at the end of a pretty unpleasant freshman year in college, after having seen the Bela Tarr film of the same story. It's not an easy novel to give a capsule description of, the prose style has the syntactic density of Faulkner, with these beautiful shifts in perspective, from the cosmic to the microscopic. There's a really bleak, black comedy to the book, distantly watching things build up and collapse around the arrival of a circus into a Hungarian town. I imagine it'd be even more devastating to read after having read Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism", something about the logical extensions of nihilism, and the force of the crowd....
Haven't read Konrad's "The Loser", but I've been halfway through "The Case Worker" twice, putting it down each time. Now there's a book filled with unyielding misery.
Posted by: Nirav at May 6, 2005 2:40 PMthanks for the comments, Nirav.
You know, some of the best books I've read took me a couple of passes before I got into them and stayed with it. I mentioned above THE OGRE by Michel Tournier, which I think is one of the masterpieces of our time. It took me 3 tries, and on the 3rd, I was with it forever.
As you've got on so well with 'The Ogre', Adam, I suspect you'll enjoy Tournier's other books, of which I particularly recommend 'Gilles et Jeanne', based on Gilles de Rais and Joan of Arc, and 'Friday, or The Other Island', a reinterpretation, psychologically and philosophically, of Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe'. Tournier did a brave thing: gave up writing fiction once he felt he'd said all he had to say. There are quite a few famously clapped-out authors I wish would follow suit.
Posted by: Brian Marley at May 7, 2005 6:55 AMSalman Rushdie and Jeanette Winterson, to name but two.
Posted by: Brian Marley at May 7, 2005 9:06 AMMy favorite book is European, _Between Life and Death_, Nathalie Sarraute.
I've read some of Tournier's shorts, but should probably find _The Ogre_ I guess.
Posted by: faster at May 7, 2005 6:01 PMDalkey Archive Press, which publishes some of the best and most original fiction in the world, has a big sale on, $4 for hardcovers. Brian Marley, Joe Milazzo, and a few others have recommended some of DA's writers to me.
check it out:
http://www.centerforbookculture.org/pages/support_sale.html
Posted by: Adam Hill at July 13, 2005 10:05 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................