Posted on 06/25/2002 7:02:06 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
Okay, so far this evening we've had threads about the Worst War Movie Ever Made and about the Best War Movie Ever Made. Now I will ratchet up the discussions a notch with the BEST Novel Ever Written. Remember this is novel which means FICTION. I exclude science fiction from this category. In my opinion novel writing reached a peak in the late 40s and early 50s. Since then we've had some very good novels but not of the quality of that era.
So my nomination for the BEST novel ever written is an easy one: From Here To Eternity by James Jones. If you haven't read it, then READ IT. It is incredible beyond belief. In fact it was so good, that when Norman Mailer read it, he declared it to be better than his own The Naked And The Dead which is quite an admission for a novelist as egotistical as Norman Mailer to make.
One secret for the quality of From Here To Eternity (in addition to it's outstanding writing) is that James Jones based most of the characters on real people (including himself if you look closely). When I read From Here To Eternity I was stunned by the high quality of the writing. It was the only book I have ever read where I slowed down my reading rate because I didn't want to get to the end. I wanted it to go on and on.
Yes, the movie version was great (although the idea that soldiers would pay Donna Reed just for the privelege of chatting with her in private seemed ridiculous) but after you read the novel, it pales in comparison.
Well, the latter takes imagination, true...
That and the names. I did read somewhere that Herbert studied desert ecology and desert cultures as research for the book. I just couldn't get into it. However, the popularity of Dune did put a couple of hundred bucks into my pocket. It was a mint condition Dune Encyclopedia that the flea market lady sold for just a buck. A few months later, some other flea market person offered me the same book for $10 and was shocked when I flipped out a ten-spot to pay for the book without any attempt to negotiate the price like about every other flea market buyer would have done.
Read that book and that is ALL you will want to do.
Reading the book will make me want to get hit by a truck?
Actually a better book than Atlas Shrugged. There was another great book Rand wrote about life in Soviet Russia. Can't remember it right now off the top of my head but I read it. And the characters in that book seemed real.
Well, that would make sense if one were going to write a book based in a desert landscape.
hehehehe - humor isn't even working with you. That one may be my fault because it was too subtle for your mood.
It was fabulous, by the way.
If I remember right, Tolkien considered Middle Earth to actually be Europe, not a mythical world at all, only set in the very distant past. As a youth, I spent time in the English countryside and saw many ancient prehistoric ruins, mounds, immense chalk drawings, etc. The English countryside is beautiful and charming, but also has an ancient and mystical quality. LOTR actually connects very strongly to both the beautiful and the mystical qualities of the English countryside, probably more deeply than Leonard or Hiassen do to South Florida. Reading it never fails to evoke strong memories in me.
What was stunning about From Here To Eternity was the combination of incredible writing skill with complex characters and a realistic (often unflattering) look at Hawaiian society and the Army. When the movie came out, they had to tone down his harsh look at the pre-war Army. Jones also portrayed the life of soldiers off-base which of course included drinking and hookers. There was also a storyline about Hawaiian homos that tried to prey on the soldiers. And there was a brutal look at the army brig which included a prisoner (not in the movie) who was a Wobbly (member of the International Workers of the World). Obviously Jones had met a Wobbly while in the army because of the interesting information he provided on this. The Wobbly was quite a fascinating character. Oh, and there is MUCH for you Django Rhinehardt fans out there to like in this book. Jones was utterly mesmerized by Rhinehardt's music.
In a way, my description of the book is quite inadequate because there are many stories running in this book (although the main story centers on Robert E. Lee Prewitt).
Oh, I should say more? Why do people here on the most part believe that individual people are able to decide whether things are good, as opposed to commitees or whatever, but not if that matter is literature? Sure, 95% of everything is crap, and people are stupid... but just because something is popular doesn't mean it isn't good. SF is the one genre that asks you, above all else, to question your believes, to ask "what if", "why not", and "who says". Sure, we have bad writers like Robert Jordan, formulaic plots like the Sword of Shannara series or anything by Mercedes Lackey. But at the same time, there are things you won't find anywhere else.
The books you listed as the "people's choices" for best of the century - I agree with most of them. (Heinlein is my favorite author but he did go nuts somewhere around Stranger in a ....).
Escapism? Brother, sometimes SF is the only thing that comes close to speaking to me. You mentioned Ender's Game - when I read that, I was 14, lonely, talented, and a little too egotistical. The characters in that story spoke to me. No, I saw myself in them. I have never been a soldier in Hawaii. I have been a child who felt adults were looking down on her. Would PJs novel have done more for me?
Thank you for mentioning Zelazny. He has long been my favorite writer. In fact, Zelazny and Gaiman were acquainted: Zelazny wrote an introduction for the trade paperback collection of Gaiman's 4-issue "Books of Magic" series.
While everyone who knows of Zelazny is familiar with him as the author of the Amber books, in my own opinion Lord of Light was his best work. His mixing of high and low in his writing reaches its pinnacle in this book...
"His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit. Silence, though, could." --Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light
Now, I ask anyone... does that not draw the reader in more than the babble quoted from James Joyce, above? Is it not more intriguing, offering glimpses of both the ordinary and the extraordinary? If the fact that I enjoy this writing means I'm hopelessly mired in escapism, then so be it. I'd rather experience his worlds than any others.
It ain't my novel and, yes, it would have done more for you. Read it and find out for yourself.
Again, I'll repeat. No novelist was/is more egotistical than Norman Mailer yet he even proclaimed From Here To Eternity a better novel than he could have written. It just killed him inside to admit that but Jones' novel was just that good that he had to.
Tell you what, I'll try "From here" as soon as I have time. September, maybe; I'm barely keeping up with my current series as it is. I won't knock it til I've tried it, but... well, everyone has different tastes. That's what makes things interesting. Insulting SF will make it even more interesting, for you.... ;-)
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