Easy-Breezy English пишет: ↑24 май 2020, 20:50
So, here’s my little ode to Kerouac. )) Maybe give it another shot?
You never know ... My reading mind sometimes works unpredictably. )) (last two days it's Dostoevsky. In Russian, 'cause in English it's almost unbearable ... more like Engsian)
The incentive was yet another piece with praise to Dostoevsky & Tolstoy who were placed by the author as second only to each other in the literary world. As you can see I was practically forced into giving this writer one more shot. )))
To give my mind some sense of direction now I try by-trial-and-error to pick a novel which has throth great storyline, fresh style, and about half a handful (a good single one would do) of non-trivial lessons scattered over it. The bar is more than a little bit too high. Not even sure that I can name more than half a dozen books meeting these criteria.
Recognitions by William Gaddis, and ... well, most of my favorites usually hit two, two and a half points out of three. And while good and even great stories are in long, I even dare say near endless supply, catchy and unconventional style is still a relatively rare find these days.
Must also say that Kerouac is in a good company. :) Theodore Dreiser, Philip Roth, Paolo Coelho, Don DeLillo, Joseph Conrad, John Fowles, Martin Amis, the last two I hope being there temporarily, on the way to my mental get-back-to-list.
Easy-Breezy English пишет: ↑24 май 2020, 21:47
I might give it another go. I don't have your propensity for unpuzzling, though, so I'm likely to fail again. :-)
It's not actually that big of a propensity, more like occassional curiosity. And rest assured that my list of 'failures' is much longer than yours; almost knee-high, probably, pushing two? three? dozens of names.