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Authors with "one hit wonders"

I'd recommend Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (well, I'm not sure if that's the only book she wrote, but I haven't found any others). This is an hilarious parody of the British, gloomy rural novels so beloved of certain writers. Each character takes the mickey out of a certain stereotype (the matriarch of the family is one Aunt Ada Doom, who has never got over seeing "something nasty in the woodshed" when she was young - The Divine Comedy, anyone?) The book is hilarious, and I'd recommend anyone to give it a try. (The BBC(?) adaptation, with Kate Beckinsale and Rufus Sewell, is excellent too).
 
Donna Tartt's The Secret History is considered a one-hit wonder, even though she wrote another book much later. The second book wasn't nearly as good. Can't verify that, as I only read The Secret History, which I thought was great.

Also, there's the famous Confederacy of Dunces, published posthumously for John Kennedy O'Toole.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. It's her only published book and has been a constant on highschool reading lists since the 60s.
 
Yes, I can certainly confirm the above statement that "The Perfume" by Patrick Süßkind is a great book. I did not read the other ones but they are said to be not as nearly as good, well, perhaps even not good at all.

I don´t know of any other "one time hits" in literature...
so I hope this thread goes on
:D
 
Henri Charriere. Papillon was one of the major books of its time, but the follow-up, "Banco", didn't do well. You can find the former on just about every bookshelf around, but the latter's a rare thing to find these days, and most who own it tend to have a pretty low opinion of it.
 
If we stick to authors who published just one book (as opposed to just one good book and others that weren't so good), then after Harper Lee the horizon is pretty uncluttered. Even John Kennedy Toole is borderline (on this strict interpretation) as A Confederacy of Dunces wasn't published until after his death, and then was followed by another, The Neon Bible.

I was going to suggest Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, whose classic The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) was his only book. But then I realised that it was published posthumously too...
 
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (just this one and some poems)

The Life of Pi - Yann Martel (wrote other stuff too)

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (wrote other stuff too)
 
I’m a bit confused on the term “one hit wonder”.
Seemingly taken from the pop market music scene…a “one hit wonder” is generally a band that achieves success and then flounders with their follow-up(s).
[I would have to hope and think that colossal shite “bands” like Maroon 5 will be a prime example of this term.]

So, going by this, there needs to be a different term for a Harper Lee, Cervantes or a Miss Bronte -they more having ‘one career at-bat, resulting in a home run’. One book, one hit.
(needless to say I do not add Toole’s pap to this very unique list).

And then there’s the “hit” definition. Are we talking a literary success or Best Seller success?

j
Who never understood the attractiveness to the horrid book called _Perfume_
 
jay said:
Who never understood the attractiveness to the horrid book called Perfume
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Well now. It may be full of horrid people and things, but it's a beautiful book.
 
Rogue said:
Somebody loves to nitpick.
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Are we really at such a loss with proper communication, so shoulder-deep in love with talking for talks’ sake that throwing ill-defined labels onto things is proper?
And then when called on it it’s deemed as bitchy?
Well then, carry on…

Shade said:
Well now. It may be full of horrid people and things, but it's a beautiful book.
Click to expand...
[Perfume]

Not so horrible people –nothing that has been done before, and better- but boring, sloppy (both the German and English, from what little captured my attention) nonethemore, methinks.
No doubt there are worse books out there, but some of these ‘cult classics’ continue to puzzle me in their allure.
 
I liked it, I suppose it comes down to that whole taste thing (see the Mainstream Blockbuster thread...). I've glanced through your other posts since I posted that message above, jay, and you are a reader of great discernment whose opinions are worthy of respect. So with the understanding that I'm not being challenging or sarcastic when I say this... what books would you recommend as those that have done Perfume's themes 'before, and better'?

Incidentally, have just ordered Kiss of the Spider Woman on your (and Wabbit's) recommendation. Better be good!
 
Shade said:
I liked it, I suppose it comes down to that whole taste thing
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Undoubtedly. No fault in that, we all have certain things that appeal to the individual. And that’s important.

and you are a reader of great discernment whose opinions are worthy of respect.
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I wouldn’t go that far…

what books would you recommend as those that have done Perfume's themes 'before, and better'?
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Hmmm, well, it’s been around 15 years since I flipped through _Perfume_, when it first came out in the US, and I never could finish it. I think I got about 100 pages in (I absolutely refuse to read a book all the way through if the writer doesn’t do his/her job of keeping my attention – while this may not really give an overall *informed* opinion (the only kind of opinion anyone “has a right to”, I can easily chalk it up as, “unreadable”, for me.))

My saying the themes have been done before and better (bottom line though is everything’s been done before) was more playing off the “horrid people”, of which I would moreso think of Heathcliff in the also-mentioned-in-this-thread, amazing novel, _Wuthering Heights_.
Of course the first ‘unique monster’ that comes to mind, also set in Paris, is Hugo’s _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_.
And then the list of books about murderers is, of course endless…


Incidentally, have just ordered Kiss of the Spider Woman on your (and Wabbit's) recommendation. Better be good!
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Cool. It’s by no means a master-work, but a nice read. Do post your thoughts.
j
 
Would Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier fit in this category. I really enjoyed Cold Mountain and I don't believe he has written anything else that approaches this book.
 
muggle said:
Would Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier fit in this category. I really enjoyed Cold Mountain and I don't believe he has written anything else that approaches this book.
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Has he written anything else at all (besides "Cold Mountain")?
 
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