Paul Cannell
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Pretentious, Moi?
These are the long novels (maybe not all of them) that I think are seriously worth re-reading with “helpful” notes on why. I’ll mention a few deliberate omissions to broaden the picture. Why long novels? It’s a category that makes some sense now, as I can read most normal length stuff in a couple of days – these books feel like they take longer, deserve longer – that’s not to say that “A House and it’s Head” (Compton-Burnett) or “The Quiet American” aren’t worth reading……….
W. D. Snodgrass wrote a volume of poetry entitled “Not for Specialists”, it was by definition for no-one.
“In search of lost time” – Proust
“These are the Alps, sit and watch them crumble.” Or better, read it. There’s nothing that comes close to it’s ambition, which is I suppose to capture a life by it’s minutiae; that’s almost totally not the point, though. Parts of this book: the descriptions of the walks, the Guermantes Way and the Meseglise Way, the evocation of the childhood atmosphere, drives with Mme de Villparisis, (and I think I may still be in the first volume) are the vividest and most immersive reading I know, it’s LoL funny (no more examples), characters re-appear redefined by their and the narrator’s place in respect to them. There’s no moral, no message just the glorious mess of life remembered by a generous writer. There’s nothing like it.
“War and Peace” - Tolstoy
I’m not sure this is his best effort, Anna Karenina?, but I re-read it recently (forty years after the first go) and started Anna – I couldn’t get on with Anna but W & P got me. The ambition of the thing is immense, the descriptions of the set-pieces stunning (battles, the Russian withdrawal, the retreat from Moscow) are riveting and carry the characters along. Maybe it’s the translation (Constance Garnett) but Tolstoy’s not great with character. He wanders off into overarching theories of how the world works as well; it’s OK, I just skip those – W & P’s the book I’ve got closest to finishing but never read the last chapter.
2066 – Bolano
Speaking of missing bits, I’ve read this several times and I’ve only read the first part about the critics once. The rest is a deep-dive into something weird, a work of the imagination that is about writing, about how everyone has a unique view, about accident and about the real horror built into how the world works. The relentless description of the murders of women in Cuidad Jaurez ties the thing together like a machine driving the whole world, which I just thought of now.
“Quiet flows the Don” / “the Don flows down to the sea” - Solokhov
If you like action stories where characters are clear, and the good guys are obvious you’ll like these. Rollicking page-turners; Solokhov’s no simpleton commie-lover either. See below.
“Life and Fate” / “Stalingrad” - Grossman
Only read these once, I will read them again d.v / insh’allah. This is the Russian who does character. This is a beautiful book of hardship, striving, heroism and failure; it’s also the most moving holocaust book I have read, but it’s not about that; it’s about more – the USSR turning away from something close to freedom into something repugnant.
Recognitions – Gaddis
Horror is Stephan, who forged paintings when he had a different name, stripping the paint from a Valdes Leal in a monastery while Hemingway watches. My copy’s in several bits, I’ve read it so often; but I’m not sure what it’s stance really is on reality, authenticity and life in general. Perhaps it’s simple like Tao Ch’ien – it’s not important to understand everything you read – in fact I suppose part of the ‘argument’ of the Recognitions is that it’s vital (literally so) that you can’t.
It’s quite hard to read but it has bits that are breathtaking.
English-language Long Stuff
I don’t think anyone except Sterne understood brevity before Austen, and several (Dickens, Melville…) didn’t afterwards. Fielding’s a good old boy and Defoe isn’t (although the thing about pirates that ends with “Greetings from Captain Bob” is interesting).
Austen has it all, I want to read Middlemarch again because it might be worth it, I never read Richardson.
I will never again read Melville, Dickens, Thackeray or Galsworthy and I might never read Hardy (lovely settings, rustic schlock). Powell makes Peyton Place look deep and I’m not sure there’s much after that – Alistair Grey’s Lanark is worth a shout.
Pynchon is a bit like road-runner, noisy like an empty kettle; at least he’s not actively offensive like Roth and most of his contemporaries.
Henry James has his moments but, in fine, there is too much atmosphere.
McCarthy is problemmatic, he wrote two beautiful, human books (Suttree, The Orchard Keeper) then careered off into a world of sociopathic hate with lazy books.
De Lillo’s White Noise is worth a go. Vidal’s ‘Empire’ series is a serious distaff history and written by a master. My favourite (apart from Gaddis) is probably Infinite Jest which is not indescribable. The Pale King is a courageous attempt to write a book that analyses boredom, Foster-Wallace, both.
Nearly forgot Ulysses, it’s worth the work, I couldn’t muster the momentum for Finnegan’s Wake
Here are other brilliant books that are long or quite long:
The Day of the Death of Ricardo Reis – Saramago
The Golovlyov Family – Schedrin
An Insular Possession – Mo
Les Liaisons Dangereux – Choderlos de Laclos
Miracle of the Rose – Genet
Lolita / Pale Fire – Nabokov
The War of the end of the world – Vargas Llosa (this is his only good book, the man is an utter shite)
Terra Nostra – Fuentes
Onetti’s Santa Maria series – start with A Brief Life
Mishima – Sea of fertility (Tanizaki is too short)
Madame Bovary – should be read, I think
54 – Wu Ming / Luther Blissett – this is great – Carey Grant meets president? Tito.
I’m reading I Promessi Sposi by Manzoni – it’s OK so far
Don’t read Stendhal, specially Charthouse of Parma, it’s terrible guff.
I could have gone on......
These are the long novels (maybe not all of them) that I think are seriously worth re-reading with “helpful” notes on why. I’ll mention a few deliberate omissions to broaden the picture. Why long novels? It’s a category that makes some sense now, as I can read most normal length stuff in a couple of days – these books feel like they take longer, deserve longer – that’s not to say that “A House and it’s Head” (Compton-Burnett) or “The Quiet American” aren’t worth reading……….
W. D. Snodgrass wrote a volume of poetry entitled “Not for Specialists”, it was by definition for no-one.
“In search of lost time” – Proust
“These are the Alps, sit and watch them crumble.” Or better, read it. There’s nothing that comes close to it’s ambition, which is I suppose to capture a life by it’s minutiae; that’s almost totally not the point, though. Parts of this book: the descriptions of the walks, the Guermantes Way and the Meseglise Way, the evocation of the childhood atmosphere, drives with Mme de Villparisis, (and I think I may still be in the first volume) are the vividest and most immersive reading I know, it’s LoL funny (no more examples), characters re-appear redefined by their and the narrator’s place in respect to them. There’s no moral, no message just the glorious mess of life remembered by a generous writer. There’s nothing like it.
“War and Peace” - Tolstoy
I’m not sure this is his best effort, Anna Karenina?, but I re-read it recently (forty years after the first go) and started Anna – I couldn’t get on with Anna but W & P got me. The ambition of the thing is immense, the descriptions of the set-pieces stunning (battles, the Russian withdrawal, the retreat from Moscow) are riveting and carry the characters along. Maybe it’s the translation (Constance Garnett) but Tolstoy’s not great with character. He wanders off into overarching theories of how the world works as well; it’s OK, I just skip those – W & P’s the book I’ve got closest to finishing but never read the last chapter.
2066 – Bolano
Speaking of missing bits, I’ve read this several times and I’ve only read the first part about the critics once. The rest is a deep-dive into something weird, a work of the imagination that is about writing, about how everyone has a unique view, about accident and about the real horror built into how the world works. The relentless description of the murders of women in Cuidad Jaurez ties the thing together like a machine driving the whole world, which I just thought of now.
“Quiet flows the Don” / “the Don flows down to the sea” - Solokhov
If you like action stories where characters are clear, and the good guys are obvious you’ll like these. Rollicking page-turners; Solokhov’s no simpleton commie-lover either. See below.
“Life and Fate” / “Stalingrad” - Grossman
Only read these once, I will read them again d.v / insh’allah. This is the Russian who does character. This is a beautiful book of hardship, striving, heroism and failure; it’s also the most moving holocaust book I have read, but it’s not about that; it’s about more – the USSR turning away from something close to freedom into something repugnant.
Recognitions – Gaddis
Horror is Stephan, who forged paintings when he had a different name, stripping the paint from a Valdes Leal in a monastery while Hemingway watches. My copy’s in several bits, I’ve read it so often; but I’m not sure what it’s stance really is on reality, authenticity and life in general. Perhaps it’s simple like Tao Ch’ien – it’s not important to understand everything you read – in fact I suppose part of the ‘argument’ of the Recognitions is that it’s vital (literally so) that you can’t.
It’s quite hard to read but it has bits that are breathtaking.
English-language Long Stuff
I don’t think anyone except Sterne understood brevity before Austen, and several (Dickens, Melville…) didn’t afterwards. Fielding’s a good old boy and Defoe isn’t (although the thing about pirates that ends with “Greetings from Captain Bob” is interesting).
Austen has it all, I want to read Middlemarch again because it might be worth it, I never read Richardson.
I will never again read Melville, Dickens, Thackeray or Galsworthy and I might never read Hardy (lovely settings, rustic schlock). Powell makes Peyton Place look deep and I’m not sure there’s much after that – Alistair Grey’s Lanark is worth a shout.
Pynchon is a bit like road-runner, noisy like an empty kettle; at least he’s not actively offensive like Roth and most of his contemporaries.
Henry James has his moments but, in fine, there is too much atmosphere.
McCarthy is problemmatic, he wrote two beautiful, human books (Suttree, The Orchard Keeper) then careered off into a world of sociopathic hate with lazy books.
De Lillo’s White Noise is worth a go. Vidal’s ‘Empire’ series is a serious distaff history and written by a master. My favourite (apart from Gaddis) is probably Infinite Jest which is not indescribable. The Pale King is a courageous attempt to write a book that analyses boredom, Foster-Wallace, both.
Nearly forgot Ulysses, it’s worth the work, I couldn’t muster the momentum for Finnegan’s Wake
Here are other brilliant books that are long or quite long:
The Day of the Death of Ricardo Reis – Saramago
The Golovlyov Family – Schedrin
An Insular Possession – Mo
Les Liaisons Dangereux – Choderlos de Laclos
Miracle of the Rose – Genet
Lolita / Pale Fire – Nabokov
The War of the end of the world – Vargas Llosa (this is his only good book, the man is an utter shite)
Terra Nostra – Fuentes
Onetti’s Santa Maria series – start with A Brief Life
Mishima – Sea of fertility (Tanizaki is too short)
Madame Bovary – should be read, I think
54 – Wu Ming / Luther Blissett – this is great – Carey Grant meets president? Tito.
I’m reading I Promessi Sposi by Manzoni – it’s OK so far
Don’t read Stendhal, specially Charthouse of Parma, it’s terrible guff.
I could have gone on......
