Saturday, January 30, 2010

General Fiction – a miscellany

I appear to have only one book by the following authors:

Carlos FuentesTerra Nostra
Jean GenetOur Lady of the Flowers
Hannah Green -I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
Doris GrumbachThe Missing Person

fuentes_terranostra genet_flowers1973
green_rosegarden grumbach_missing

Actually I do have another Joseph Heller book somewhere, but of course Catch 22 is his most famous. It’s still a great read.

heller_catch22
Then there are the two Irvings…

John Irving with his famous ‘Garp’ and Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

irving_garp irving_hollow

Shirley Jackson’s books have been out of print for decades, but I am pleased to see that her best known books have recently been reprinted in Penguin. She is an extraordinary writer and her We Have Always Lived In The Castle is my favourite of hers and also one of my all time favourite novels. I gave it to my niece at Christmas and she loved it. Merricat Blackwood is one of the most compelling literary creations of all time. My battered old paperback edition is below.

jackson_castle

The Haunting of Hill House is one of the scariest, most suspenseful novels I have ever read. There have been several film versions of this book, but nothing beats reading the original. The Lottery is a collection of her best stories. I remember, when I was a member of a small theatrical group back in the ‘60s we performed the play based on The Lottery – I was Tessa, the victim.

jackson_haunting jackson_lottery

Next – Jack Kerouac

1 comment:

Will Errickson said...

Shirley Jackson is wonderful. Love that subtle cover for CASTLE - I've never seen it before. Also one of my favorites.