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The best so far?

W

Wabbit

New Member
OK, over half the year is gone now. What has been the best novel you have read, so far, this year, and why?

For me, it is Kiss of the Spider Woman By Manuel Puig. Synopsis: Sometimes Molina and Valentin talk all night long in the still darkness of their cell. Each has always been alone and in danger of betrayal, but in Cell 7 each surrenders to the other something of himself that he has never surrendered before.

This is a great novel. I liked it because of it's originality. The novel is told only though dialogue. The story takes place in a single location ( a prison cell ) where to men talk with each other. There are no other location and only the dialogue between the two men to tell the story.

The characters are so well written. Those two people will live forever in me and when I left the book it was as if I really knew them both and was leaving old friends behind as the last page turned.

Finally, the book is very beautifully written. There are so many beautiful and well constructed sentences in this book. The book is full of emotion, wisdom, thought provoking concepts which are all bound within a wonderful plot.

Well, this is mine. What is yours? :)
 
SillyWabbit said:
Kiss of the Spider Woman By Manuel Puig.
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Haven't read the novel, but taped the movie a while ago. I'll probably watch it tomorrow after work. (Hoorah for early shifts)
 
for me, it's Blindness by Jose Saramago. the book is compelling in its description of societal breakdown in the wake of an unexpected blindess that washes over the population. it's brutal and cruel, but also touching and beautiful. i love a good post-apocalyptic novel and this is one of the best i've read. i also rather enjoyed the way Saramago chose to write the book, it made me feel somewhat blind as well, so that pulled me into the story even more.
 
Saving Private Ryan by Max Allan Collins. The movie was good, the book was the best. It's a fictional story based on true events. A good friend gave this book to me to read and to quote him "Only someone without a heart could read this and not cry."
 
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I wrote a fairly long post explaining why, but it was eaten by the forum goblins. This site has been unbelievably slow for me lately!
 
hey, Thea, I am thinking about the same book, 100 years of solitude.

but now really curious about what have you written down about this book, since you said that your reply was kinda long. :)
 
Overall best book of the year probably War and Peace.....
Most unexpected good book of the year goes to the Moviegoer though!
Best author of the year Kurt Vonnegut.
 
Thea said:
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I wrote a fairly long post explaining why, but it was eaten by the forum goblins. This site has been unbelievably slow for me lately!
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I am really curious too, as this is one of my all time fav books :)
 
Jenem said:
for me, it's Blindness by Jose Saramago. the book is compelling in its description of societal breakdown in the wake of an unexpected blindess that washes over the population. it's brutal and cruel, but also touching and beautiful. i love a good post-apocalyptic novel and this is one of the best i've read. i also rather enjoyed the way Saramago chose to write the book, it made me feel somewhat blind as well, so that pulled me into the story even more.
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This sounds a very interesting book, your description actually reminds me of Day of the Triffids - is this a suitable comparison?

For me it would have to be Paradise Lost (even if it's technically epic poetry). Epic is, of course, the word, the story grand beyond parallel and arresting both in terms of its philosophical and theological interest and in its simpler, but immensely satisfying Saint-Michael-stabbing-Satan-with-a-huge-two-handed-flaming-claymore aspects. Milton writes beautifully, even if he's a little too taken with his classical allusions, and this truly is a life-altering book. Go read.
 
Okay. This post isn't going to be as good as the one I tried submitting before, because I'm sick today and my head is foggy, but I'll try.

My reaction to 100 Years of Solitude changed periodically throughout the book. After the first 50 or so pages I was fascinated, drawn in by Marquez's tell-it-like-it's-normal style. I'm quite attracted to the magical realism genre but I haven't read much, and I am still attempting to find my own voice when it comes to writing, so this book also served as a primer on a new writing style. Marquez candidly describes flying carpets, ghosts, and other seemingly otherwordly things as if they are everyday occurrences expected to exist. This was my first encounter with that style of writing, where it didn't end with "and then he woke up" or get bogged down in lengthy, unnecessary scientific explanations.

By the time I reached the halfway point I was sick of the whole thing; frustrated with my failed attempts at memorizing all of the similarly-named characters (impossible on the first read, I'd imagine), and fatigued by the sheer amount of events going on at one time. I'm a daydreamer, and I found it difficult to go ten pages further without having to flip back a few pages at least once to catch up on some things I'd missed. After about 250 pages I threw the book down onto the floor and forgot about it for two weeks. Meanwhile my partner kept trying to push me back into it:

"The ending is perfect, it's poetry. It truly is a masterpiece. Please finish it."

Finally I picked it up again and started from where I left off, but I stopped trying to keep track of the characters and simply focused on the passing of time, the habits and failures repeated throughout the generations, the inevitability of what was to come. I had a few guesses as to the ending and in some small ways I was correct, but it would be impossible for anyone who hasn't flipped to the end out of curiosity to guess how everything is wrapped up. It was the opposite of disappointing, I'll put it that way.

100 Years of Solitude is not an exceptionally long book, but the amount of characters and conflicts and time condensed into 432 pages is infuriating. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this is the most infuriating book I've ever read. I don't know if I'll ever reread it, but it has found a home in my nebulous list of favorites.
 
This sounds a very interesting book, your description actually reminds me of Day of the Triffids - is this a suitable comparison?
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Yes and no - this is Day of the Triffids, only a few levels better. Just read it.

For me, my favourite of the year would have to be Cryptonomicon, which has taken hold of the first position of best books ever, too.

Cheers
 
Just found Cryptonomicon whilst unpacking - I must get round to reading it at some point :cool:
 
I was going to read Cryptonomicon as soon as I go back to school because my Physics teacher (an well-read, intellectual, interesting all-round great guy who scored me a research trip to London at the school's expense earlier this year) recommended it to me. Now it's got Martin's seal of approval too, there's no way I can afford to miss out!
 
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