Larry McMurtry used to run a bookstore in Washington, DC for many years. Clearly he didn't mind East Coast big city living for all those years.
I never said his choice of Archer City was inexplicable, D'Artagnan--you are displaying your usual need for a remedial reading class. I said it was perverse, quite a different thing. I'll stand by that comment, bolstered by the fact that the L.A. Times did a big feature story on McMurtry and his store a few months back and came to the same conclusion...
Perverse in what sense Larry? As in sadistic?
Tartarin,
Yes, I do get that sense. (But I don't live in Texas. I'm only here occasionally.) :wink:
Perverse, Lola, in the way that opening a gourmet restaurant on a desert island would be perverse.
"Girlfriend 44" by Mark Barrowcliffe
A very funny and amusing English best seller.
I just finished reading Don DeLillo's brand new novel COSMOPOLIS. A disappointing performance to say the least. Even at 200 pages it feels padded and overlong, perhaps because DeLillo doesn't really know or care anything about the money culture of the Nineties he is trying to satirize. Between this and his last novel THE BODY ARTIST I am starting to think Mr. D's talent is seriously running out. Perhaps the effort of composing UNDERWORLD exhausted it.
Maybe time to start a new thread, Lar, "Is Don DeLillo the Most Overrated Novelist Since Thomas Pynchon?" Go for it!
Aw gee, D'art, Lar is at least trying -- reading all this awful stuff ALL THE WAY THROUGH just for our edification.
More yucks from the peanut gallery! I happen to think that DeLillo has established himself in the past as a great novelist with books like END ZONE, PLAYERS, RUNNING DOG, LIBRA, WHITE NOISE and big chunks of UNDERWORLD. It's just a disappointment to see him writing below his gifts. If clowns like D'Artagnan and Tartarin can't get that distinction, that is THEIR problem.
I've gone back to my Mario Vargas Llosa kick and am reading AUNT JULUA AND THE SCRIPTWRITER, which is tremendous fun.
D'Artagnan and Tartarin, why don't you post about what YOU are reading? We'd love to hear about porno or comic books....
We're looking for Just The Right Books, Larry.
Yes, we're always looking for tips from those who appreciate authors, rather than from those who view literature as some sort of competition. Who's up? Who's down? Stayed tuned for the latest pronouncement...
(For the record, I recently finished Cosmopolis, but it sounds like the pronouncement has been made about it, so I'll refrain from comment.)
I'm sorry to say that I haven't had time to keep up with this thread but I did just start reading "Gould's Book of Fish" by Richard Flanagan and all I can say is Wow! No... what I really mean is WOW!
Has this book been brought up yet on this thread? I'd love to know who else has read it and what they thought.
D'Artagnan, if you have a differing opinion of COSMOPOLIS, I'd love to hear it. Since when did you of all people turn into a shrinking violet?
The most passionate defender of COSMPOLIS would have to concede that it is DeLillo Lite--a lesser effort by the great man, and that is the most that can be said for it.
In recent weeks on this thread I have recommended two novels by mario Vargas Llosa: THE WAR OF THE END OF THE WORLD and AUNT JULIA AND THE SCRIPTWRITER. I have also put int a major plug for Dickens' PICKWICK PAPERS. Over the same time period, what books have you, Tartarin and D'Artagnan, been equally positive about? I do not regard literature as a competitive sport. I do regard the two of you as competitors since you take deliberate pleasure in attacking whatever I say on whatever thread you find it. How petty and small minded can you get?
"To the brazen all is brass"--Oscar Wilde
Venturing into another field here - Vietnamnurse recommended a book to me a bit ago, because we're both interested in cooking and do a lot of it. Cucina Ebraica, by Joyce Goldstein, which not only give some fascinating recipes, a lot of them of ancient origin, but also a lot of history and explanation of cooking.
I generally don't do much in novels except for all mystery, trial, detective, etc. I was twelve when I started on Dickens, and quite a bit younger when I really started reading..
But my interests are catholic, and so I find a lot of cookbooks difficult to put down, unlike a lot of modern authors, whom I find I can stop reading within 50 pages.
I have just started reading Tropical Animal by Pedro Juan Gutierrez. It is errr.umm....interesting - more thoughts when I have read some more...
Though have to admit, it is not the right choice to read on a crowded train...
