What is the single greatest novel you've ever read? No ifs,

>>8592606
MD for me too.

>>8592663
Was mine when I was a teenager, but it feels a bit indulgently and unrealistically cynical now. Still fantastically written though.

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I can't help it I really really love it. Don't know if we're counting it as a "novel" though.

>>8592606
The Dick if I get to count novels I haven't finished. Otherwise The Twelve Chairs.

>>8592606
R. by L.T.

>>8592606
The Trial by Franz Kafka got me pretty good.

>>8592663
For some reason that was a total slog for me. Charlotte was a hell of a writer, but her plotting is transparent as fuck.

Jane Eyre's better I think

I want to say it's one of the more patrician books I've read, but if I were completely honest (which, why not, it's anonymous) the novels that made the biggest impression on me in the last five years are probably DeLillo's "Libra," the second book of Knausgaard's "Min Kamp," and Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle."

>>8593756
currently reading Libra myself. Have you read any of his other works?

>>8593769
Yeah, I've read Americana (great, but with parts I simply didn't understand), White Noise (great throughout), and Mao II (didn't enjoy).

>>8592606
The count of monte cristo

Die Strudelhofstiege by Heimito von Doderer

>>8593774
Americana is very cool, super typical of Delillo's power to predict societal trends. But I agree, it's definitely one of his more blatantly abstract works, especially once he's on the trip. White Noise is fantastic. Haven't read Mao II myself, but what didn't you enjoy? You should check out End Zone and The Names, especially since you liked Americana and White Noise.

>>8593786
I don't remember. It was years ago that I read Mao II. All I remember is being bored. At that time, though, I was somewhat perplexed by DeLillo. I'd read White Noise and kind of enjoyed it but also felt like there was a huge distance between me and the author. I understood the story, but I didn't laugh very much reading it. Then, years later, I read White Noise again and truly got it, it was very funny. Haven't read Mao II since that first read when DeLillo was still over my head. Which he still is, but the distance has been narrowed.

>>8593681
have you read the golden calf? also, have you read ivan chonkin? do you like other russian stuff?

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>>8592606
The great gatsby, pic rel is my number two

>>8593804
Fair enough. Delillo really requires some complementary critical essays and commentaries if you really want to get into him. He doesn't care about plot and characters as much as he cares about themes and philosophies. I really hope we get some sweet comprehensively footnoted versions of some of his works sometime in the future. It would definitely help with some of his decade-specific cultural references.

>>8593821
>have you read the golden calf?
No. I'm gonna read it when I visit my parents for christmas (my region's libraries doesn't have it but the one in the town my dad works does).
>also, have you read ivan chonkin?
Hadn't even heard of it.
>do you like other russian stuff?
Haven't read that much of it, but what I have read I like.

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Frankenstein- by far the best book I've ever read, but Walden is a close second.

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>>8592606
Moby-Dick is 2nd or 3rd though.