Best Novel Ever Written

Self | June 25, 2002 | PJ-Comix

[Illbay]

I had missed that! I had NO IDEA Huck was so talented! I bookmarked it!

[PJ-Comix]

LoTR may not be yours, but I think it is a matter of preference, not class...

LOTR---Nordic/Celtic fairy tales and myths recycled in a very entertaining manner.

[PJ-Comix]

Atlas Shrugged for best exposition on the critical issues of our time.

With the least believable characters of our time.

Lord of the Rings for best story ever told.

Best recycled fairy tales and myths ever recycled.

[HairOfTheDog]

LOTR---Nordic/Celtic fairy tales and myths recycled in a very entertaining manner.

[snore] OK fine... Build yourself a very narrow shelf and you only need one book. Perhaps the name of your thread should have been... "PJ-Comix Tells you why "From Here to Eternity" is better than your favorite novel..."

[Andyman]

Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Different sort of genre than regular novels.

Oh, you mean different from mysteries, historical fiction, Westerns, speculative fiction... (all of which are mentioned on this thread...)

Perhaps you should post another thread about Best Science Fiction Book ever written.

No thank you, I was just curious as to why you were excluding SF from your solicitation of opinions.

Even libraries have separate sci-fi sections from fiction novels.

Oh, well, I guess that's reason enough. Back to my (literary) ghetto I go...

[Illbay]

I just think you should know that your reply was not really in the same class with "From Here To Eternity."

[HairOfTheDog]

I am not sure any of us are worthy of this thread!

[BluesDuke]

What are your nominations for Best Novel Ever Written?

In no particular order of preference, I nominate these five...

Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
Darkness at Noon (Arthur Koestler)
Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
Pylon (William Faulkner)
The Natural (Bernard Malamud)

And, for honourable mention...

The Scarlett Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich (Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn)
From Here To Eternity (James Jones)
Rabbit, Run (John Updike)
You Know Me, Al (Ring Lardner)

[Yardstick]

Yes, I definitely read it as a barb aimed directly at the Soviet communists, though I think there's a predictive component to it as well. I don't know my Russian/Soviet history well enough to have connected the dots with guys like Kamenev and Zenoviev, but Stalin and Trotski, yes.

BTW, have you seen the movie, Brazil? I would say you probably have, and I'm not telling you anything you don't know already, but if you haven't, go rent it pronto. It is an amazingly clever retelling of 1984 -- truly a fine piece of dark satire.

[PJ-Comix]

I'm not saying LOTR is bad. It's actually quite enjoyable but I really can't relate to Hobbits and Wizards in Middle Earth. To me it is a fairy tale (in a good sense). However, there is a lot that seems EXTREMELY REAL to me in From Here To Eternity. The characters were the type of people that all of us have known. BTW, Jones' observations about hookers were right on the mark. He didn't glamorize them like happens in a lot of novels and movies but he did humanize some of them. I've also talked to old timers who lived in Hawaii just prior to Pearl Harbor attack and they told me that Jone's observations about pre-war Hawaii was exactly on the mark.

[PJ-Comix]

Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)

I'm glad you mentioned that one. Before I read it I thought it would be one of those banal Toni Morrison types of work but when I read it I found it to be an incredible piece of literature. Plus there is a lot for conservatives there to like. Ellison had some great scenes in there showing what the communists were doing.

[Yardstick]

Yeah, that parody is absolutely pitch-perfect. Huck nailed it. I love the part about Marla (is that her name) not having to worry about being embarrassed by Hank playing the jukebox.

I'm telling you, FreeRepublic is absolutley crawling with great writers and great thinkers. I'm amazed at some of the stuff I see here.

[BluesDuke]

Before I read it I thought it would be one of those banal Toni Morrison types of work but when I read it I found it to be an incredible piece of literature.

Amen to that! Toni Morrison is unfit to even breathe the name of Ellison.

[HairOfTheDog]

I really can't relate to Hobbits and Wizards in Middle Earth.

I can... Look, I didn't know the purpose of your thread was to throw all these works into a ring and see if "From Here to Eternity" wins and all other works are either discounted, disqualified, or not in the same class... Competitive Novel fighting... interesting.

LoTR is just a fairy tale to you... and I may think you shallow for that. There are a lot of very real ideals in the story that are not that hidden from me... but don't worry, I will still try From Here to Eternity. I haven't read it and should...

[PJ-Comix]

A lot of "Black" literature out there is really terrible. Mostly banal stuff. However, The Invisible Man is one of the best novels ever written. The fictionalized Tuskeegee Institute was really interesting plus a lot of the stuff with his party (communist but not specifically identified) in the book. Ellison also brutally satirized liberal whites. BTW, did you notice that we never did learn the name of the main character in the book? I wonder why it was never made into a movie?

[JenB]

Different sort of genre than regular novels. Perhaps you should post another thread about Best Science Fiction Book ever written. Even libraries have separate sci-fi sections from fiction novels.

See? We fans struggle for years against you mundanes, trying to get you to admit that our books - the ones we love - have value, and you keep throwing back this "well, SF isn't literature" stuff back at us. Romance novels get more respect, for pete's sake! You know what? Every book on my top ten list is SF or straight fantasy, and yes, I read mysteries and westerns and what you would consider regular novels. What makes Lord of the Rings less worthy than The Old Man and the Sea, why is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress less respected than Atlas Shrugged? Aside from the fact that ordinary people genuinely like the books I've mentioned without having to say, yeah, they're good except the characters are wrong, or yeah, it's a great novel but I fell asleep halfway through it.

I've never read From Here to Eternity. I have read Lord of the Rings, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Doomsday Book, Dune, Foundation, Against the Fall of Night, 1984, Animal Farm, Lest Darkness Fall... classic SF or fantasy, and incredibly good books, deep looks into humanity and society... I cannot think of a more relevant genre than that of SF.

That came out a little harsh; I'm sorry. But I thought the days of hiding Astounding Wonder Stories behind the newspaper were gone forever.

[PJ-Comix]

I cannot think of a more relevant genre than that of SF.

I can but I'm not saying that SF is bad. I've read quite a bit of it including most of the Vonnegut books. However, like it or not, SF is treated as a different genre than novels. Otherwise your libraries and bookstores would have SF mixed up with literary novels. Even you wouldn't want that. Better for SF to be in a separate section. I know I appreciate that distinction when I am hunting for an SF book. And quit treating books like they are people. You are acting as if some horrible act of discrimination is taking place. I support segregation....of books. It just makes things easier.

[JenB]

Actually... I have never been in a library where the SFs are shelved seperately. Sure, the paperback racks are seperated into "SF/Fantasy" - they call it all sci-fi, the danes - westerns, romances, mysteries... but to say that all the other genres are literature and SF is not is most unfair. It's not the segregation of the books I object to; it is the ghettoization of the SF fandom, which is more prevalent than you might think. It sounds dramatic, but how would you like to have to defend your choice of reading to anyone who happens by? People who read Forest Fire in the Timnberland of My Heart get fewer stares than people with spaceships on the cover.

And yes, I appreciate having an SF section in bookstores, but they also take the "literature" out of everything else and hide it so those of us who want our space fic don't have to paw through Faulkner and Joyce. Ever notice how the SF section is prominent, but the so-called great works are buried with the cookbooks?

[HairOfTheDog]

You're the one that brought up class... And discounted our favorite as a simple rehashed recycled fairy tale... You aren't just filing them, you are ranking their importance, or lack of it. That is what we don't agree with.

Enough said by me... We both know each other's favorite books, and that is why we came here is it not?