1. The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
4. Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
5. Loukom by Calixthe Beyala
6. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Am I missing out?
6 comments:
I've never even STARTED any of those books...so I say you're doin' good. :-)
I LOVE madame bovary: "better not to touch our idols, the gilt comes off on our hands"
Waiting for the Barbarians is an amazing book -- one which i read in a single sitting and sat there shaking after it was over. Totally Kafkaesque. As for Madame Bovary....sometimes I think it is the 'perfect novel'.
I know. I've heard it all before, which is why I FEAR I'll never finish them. The Coetzee felt too much like the Hemingway, and Madame Bovary didn't feel dense enough. That one though, I intend to approach again with different expectations. At least they're not on my list of books I wish I had never read! (Ahem - Jude the Obscure)
Madame Bovary, The Wings of the Dove, and One Hundred Years of Solitude are three of my favorite books. Madame Bovary isn't dense, you're right, but Flaubert wasn't a dense writer and the book is, at least in my opinion, perfect.
I love The Wings of the Dove and Henry James so much I even have the DVD. Also the DVD of The Golden Bowl, which I admit to preferring.
I'm trying to think of a book I'll never finish, but right now the only thing that comes to mind is The Shadow of the Wind. I started it with such high expectations, but nothing happened.
Oh, I see The Shadow of the Wind is one of your favorite books. LOL Well, most of the time we have similar taste in books. :)
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