Top tier reccomendations

The Nigger of the Narcissus - Conrad

>>7553654
You're welcome, friend. I'm happy you like it.

>>7553654
try some gaddis, The Recognitions might be more your cuppa

>>7553680
kill yourself tripfag

>>7553703
I got this already. Besides the meme status of this one of the board, I was looking for more stuff.

>>7553711
Ulysses..

>>7553695
Is that his best work?

>>7553715
Thank you. Read that one years ago. Bolaño fue uno de los grandes autores latinoamericanos.

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>>7553654

The Opposing Shore has literally 10/10 prose, even in translation

>>7553725
Finally someone else talks about this fucking book. I read it in French so I can't vouch for the translation but it's my favorite novel and the prose is indeed incredible. Criminally underrated, not even Frenchfags care about it.

>>7553725
I might have one book by Julien Gracq on my library, but it is def not this one. I will look for it. Thank you.

>>7553705
well, J R is his other masterpiece, they're both mint, but J R has an interesting scheme compared to the recognitions which is more conventional.

>>7553654
>the best prose I have ever read.
>>7553743
>and the prose is indeed incredible.


What does this mean?

>>7553755
It means the sentences are top notch, the way the flow together, the descriptions, the music of the words... etc. That's what I meant anyway.

>>7553743

Thats cool that you read it in French, I can only read well in English but one of the reviews said the English translation is really accurate and captures the same feel so hopefully I didn't miss out too much.

That prose was like swimming through a warm pool of scented water while wearing a bathing suit made of velvet holy shit man. I was really impressed. There were a lot of pretty obscure words as well even for someone with a large vocabulary, I found that I had to pull out a dictionary every now and then. I don't know if that was just the translation or if that was also the case in French.

I haven't read any of his other works, I've read that The Opposing Shore is considered his best but even if his others aren't as good I'm probably gonna check them out because I really liked it.

>not my cup of tea
Pick up any YA novel to add more material to your cliche collection, faggot.

>>7553812
HAHAHAHA. Nice one.

Butthurt Pynchon fan. The guy's a joke. His prose doesn't even come close to Gass'. Stick a knife up your snobish ass, twat.

>>7553716
When it comes to the prose, probably not. His style got even better as he aged.
>>7553705
Not until everyone on this board has read The Tunnel.

>>7553817
This.

>>7553812

Not even OP but thinking Pynchon is lacking in the prose doesn't mean you are plebbish or unsophisticated. Pynchon is a great author but his strength is not in his prose. Pynchon is great for his funny jokes and puns, his encyclopedic range of subjects he references, his vignettes and the great conversations his characters have, among other things. But still at times his prose can be dry, disjointed and clumsy.

t. a Pynchon fan

>>7553824
maybe you should drop the trip then

>>7553837
I have read Inherent Vice, Against the Day, and V. I liked some of his stuff, but other pages I found boring. I got nothing against the guy: he made me laugh a few times and the some of the ideas were cool.

The fact that I am considered a "fag" for simply stating that the guy is not to my liking pisses me off, though.

>>7553843
That's no fun, anon.

>>7553844

Its just one moron who buys into /lit/ memes too much and thinks part of being patrician is fervently attacking anyone who doesn't praise Pynchon as the GOAT

OP here. I already read Middle C as well. It was amazing, but it dragged on a little, unlike The Tunnel here. Now I wanna try and get Omensetter's Luck, but sadly it is not available for Kindle, which means I have to order it just like this one.

>>7553882
I wish I could love someone as much as Gass loves Rilke

The Fishermen by Obioma was really good.
Night Women and Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James was really good.

>>7553844
Ive read about 1/3 of all of his books and found them boring and contemptuous of the reader. I finished Bleeding Edge and I thought it was subpar. Infinite Jest is highly overrated too.

2666 is not.

Petersburg by Bely is some good stuff, it's like an experimental version of Crime & Punishment.

>>7553910
2666 is good, but I liked The Savaged Detectives better. Distant Star (Estrella distante) is also very good.

>>7553715
Marquez
Llosa
Carpentier
Juan Rulfo
Bolano
Borges
Azuela
Asturias

How are Latin American authors so based, and I recommend everyone read everything every one of them has written.

>>7553920
It is on my shortlist.

>>7553923
That's practically the entire latin american canon. I am Latin American myself, went already through all of those :)

>>7553923
>>7553933
>entire latin american canon

wat?

Allende
Mistral
Neruda
Paz
Fuentes
Lispector
Dorfman

>>7553944
Yes, that why I said "practically". It means, give or take. BTW, Lispector is from Brazil. As weird as it sounds, that is really not included in Latin American studies. So no Joao Guimaraes Rosa either. Sorry.

And BTW, if you mean Isabel Allende, she's the Latin American version of Danielle Steel, so please.

>>7553944
You could also include

Nicanor Parra,
Julio Cortazar,
Adolfo Bioy Caceres,

and so on

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>>7553824

is it true that Gass wrote the following:

>The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.

because if so he's terrible.

i always knew fat people were bad writers (in the same way that women are) and on buying into your stupid gassposting i was only confirmed in my theory

thanks

>>7553990
Why don't you show us an example of your writing?

>>7554003

anyway, don't you see how perfect it is that his fucking name is Gass? Gass.

that is so funny to me

and i'll be patiently awaiting the inevitable, fallacious appeal to my refusal to post my own writing as proof that Gass (Gass lol) is a superb writer

>>7554018
Well, if you write like you post here, please spare us the trouble. I already feel like poking both my eyes out.

Bye.

The Recognitions is based, but JR is even better.

OP if you liked Gass, honestly check out McElroy and Vollmann. Some of the most complicated and brilliant prose I've ever read.

>>7554027

hey man i'm sorry. i actually read through a lot of Gass quotes and they were mostly good except for the one i picked to make fun of him with.

i was actually awestruck by his thing about colors, if you dont know what i'm talking about it's one of the first on the goodreads quotes page for Gass.

i don't know whether i'm bored or just wanted some attention, but anyway sorry for being rude

>>7554055
This is the Internet, man. And even more so, this is 4chan. Everybody here is rude, racist and faggot. Don't worry about it.

>>7554051
I bought Last Stories and Other Stories by Vollman, but I haven't read it yet. Will do.

Where's a good place to start with McElroy?

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>>7554071
Hot new chart for you

>>7554146
Thank you, sir

>>7553933
>tfw no paraguayan educated elite until literally now

>>7553944
>>7553949

Junot Diaz and Ernesto Sabato count?

>>7554262
I wouldn't call Juno canon simply because he's "too new". I am guessing canon means some sort of establishment not only by your peers, but by time.

Sabato, totally.

>>7553944
>>7553958
I would add Borges, Manuel Mujica Lainez and Oracio Quiroga. I really don't feel Sabato and Bioy Casares should be in the same boat, their work is much more hit and miss.

>>7554466
>Juno is too new for a canon
seconding this, if it were for me I would add Abelardo Castillo but he's still alive so let's wait to see if he improves even more in his last years or ruins everything.

>>7554497
I understand, but Sabato's Túnel is emblematic. As well as Sobre Héroes y Tumbas.

Certainly Rulfo is canon, yet he only published El llano en llamas and Pedro Páramo, so quantity of work doesn't count. I would give my life to write something like Pedro Páramo.

>>7554509
>>7554497
>>7554466
>>7554262
>>7553958
>>7553949
>>7553944
>>7553923
Someone please make flowchart with photos and masterwork(s).

>>7554518
If u need illustrations to help u m8, i suspect /lit/ might not be fer ya

>>7554518
>being so indoctrinated by charts

just go pick up a book and read it you dip

>>7553654
everyone you like literally traces their roots back to William Gaddis (the greatest post WWII American author)

I started with Carpenter's Gothic and just finished Agape Agape last night, both being 9-10/10. The Recognitions is his most acclaimed, but i've yet to touch it. Saving the best for last.

>>7554509
I really dislike El Túnel and can't find the value everyone sees in it. Sobre Heroes y Tumbas is a good work, I won't deny that. Overall I just feel he's a decent writer who gets too much press. It's besides quantity, of course, but if you're gonna canonize an author instead of a particular work you should consider his general overall score.

Another one that wasn't mentioned is Caicero, he neither has too much work but what he has is glorious and has some recognition around latin america.

>>7554581
I understand. I really like El Túnel, though. But it's okay.

Andrés Caicedo? Read some of his books, I didn't think it was much a big of a deal. I have seen he gets tons of recognition, I just don't see why. Maybe I just don't get it.

>>7553990
>because if so he's terrible.
No, you're terrible.

>>7554650
When I read his novel (he has only one, right?) I felt he was doing some next level shit, not only for his time. I think the main issue people find in him is that he was doing a completely localized story, when you read Borges or Cortazar you get people trying to be as european as possible, even when Mujica was writing in the style of the 1800's he's still clearly a well educated man playing a role. Que viva la músca is incredibly in character without being the kind of thing a 14 y/o girl would write, you can't tell the exact way he's making her be an efficient narrative character but the story has a working structure and none of the pitfalls the character should make. It could easily end up being like a latin palahniuck, and it avoids that so graciously.

>>7554706
Yeah? I read Angelitos empantanados (If I remember correctly those are short stories), and it didn't do much for me. I also have the biography Alberto Fuguet wrote lying around somewehere.

>>7554146
Am I the only one who has great difficulty parsing most of his writing?

The best prose is Lowry's Under the Volcano, bro

>>7554954
nope
with the exception of Gass, Faulkner and maybe a handful of others he's one of the only authors whose sentences I can't blow through in a matter of seconds.
Legitimately slows my reading comprehension way the fuck down and takes me forever to finish his books (I'm sure without a doubt I could finish the entire HP series before I could finish W&M)
All his sentences have advanced syntax shit is fuckin' weird

>>7556124
ikr. I've had more trouble with the first 5 pages of Cannonball than I've had with the entirety of The Recognitions.

ooh i haven't read the tunnel yet but it's on my shelf. i read omensetter's luck twice, it's one of the best books i've ever read. didn't care much for cartesian sonata, tho.

fav passage from omensetter:
"Furber's body was a box he lived in; his arms and legs propelled and fended for him like a cripple's crutches and a blind man's cane; while Omensetter's hands, for instance, had the same expression as his face; held out his nature to you like an offering of fruit; and added themselves to what they touched, enlarging them, as rivers meet and magnify their streams."

>>7556665
>love omensetter but didnt care for cartesian sonata
ehhhhh dude
you're in for a rough time

>>7553837
The prose in Mason and Dixon is phenomenal

>>7556672
lol probably. i keep re-reading the section "a fugue" about not getting a dog when he was a kid. it's so good
i will make it thru the book someday

>>7556298
Different guy but Cannonball took me way longer than expected. It was nice and short so I took it on an airplane. Finished it like a month later with very mixed feelings. There's definitely some good stuff in there, and I'm glad I read it, but the style really makes it a slog at times.

>>7554518
Requesting this too

>>7554071
I've read Europe Central, what's some of his other great fiction?

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>>7556736
just recently released what is now considered his masterpiece, Dying Grass

So is gassposting the new meme
What did it replace? Sankt max shit?

>>7556762
vollmannfag here
DG is solid fucking gold
its like 1300 pages of the greatest historical fiction you'll ever encounter

>>7556890
is asking about the newest meme the new meme?

>>7556890
With any luck it will replace dfw posting.

>>7554573
Not just Gaddis, but John Hawkes as well. Both are basically THE blueprints for pomo. Though I suppose you can go back a bit more and mention Henry Miller

>>7556665
Good lord, I need to read some Gass soon

>>7557366
You do. That little section is average compared to most of the writing in The Tunnel.