February & March 2008 Fiction Book Suggestions

bklvr · Guest Usergroups: None **Thanks** Gender:

Sorry - forgot to comment on the other suggested titles. I would be interested in reading "Persepolis".

Ophelia · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:04 pm Post subject:

Hello bklvr, and welcome!

I'm glad you've found us, and thank you for your reading suggestions.
I love historical fiction and it is rare to find good books in that genre, and also rare to find people to talk to about them !

So I'll follow your tip, I have ordered "Fine Bell" and will get back to you when I've read it.

Have you read A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini?
This is the fiction book Booktalk is discussing at the moment, and I am trying to entice more people to read it, as most people on this forum are more into non-fiction.

I hope to hear from you again at Booktalk. Smile

irishrosem · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:42 pm Post subject:

I don’t mean to put a damper on the enthusiasm Persepolis has garnered here; but, looking it over, I wonder if it’s the type of book that leads to good literary discussion. In fact, it’s advertised as an autobiography and a memoir, which wouldn’t really serve the interest of a fiction discussion at all. I’m interested to read Persepolis, so if it’s chosen I’ll probably join the discussion. But will it be possible with Persepolis to discuss themes, characterization, imagery, symbolism, structure—all the elements that make for good fiction? Now that’s not to say that I would champion the two books I had earlier suggested. Though Pride and Prejudice would support literary theory discussions up to a certain point, it isn’t a narrative that’s chock full of such opportunity. And, while To the Lighthouse is saturated with such elements, I don’t see much booktalk interest for either modern writing or gender discussions.

I’m wondering if any of the people who want to participate in the fiction discussion would be interested in picking up the type of texts that are often read in lit courses. Just off the top of my head I’m thinking of books like: Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness; Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter; Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby; Bronte’s Jane Eyre; Walker’s The Color Purple; James’s Daisy Miller. There’s a reason books such as these, and many more besides, resurface in English literature classes year after year—and that’s partly because they lend themselves to the type of discussion I hope we’re interested in pursuing in the new fiction forum.

So I just thought I would throw the query out there. Maybe some of us might be interested in getting comfortable discussing fiction online among some familiar canon, before branching out to other titles.

MadArchitect · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:57 pm Post subject:

I'm pretty much always up for re-reading "Heart of Darkness". I've already read it three times, but can you ever exhaust a book like that? As for the other authors you've named, with most of them, I'd like to read some of their works that don't get required in public education. Maybe something "House of the Seven Gables" for Hawthorne, and much thought I love "Gatsby", maybe "This Side of Paradise" for Fitzgerald. Henry James is an author I've been meaning to read for a long time now, so just about anything from his bibliography would be fine by me. I've read some Toni Morrison and found the experience more frustrating than enjoyable. I could probably stand to revisit Walker.

Ophelia · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:03 pm Post subject:

My respect for the classics is as high as ever, but somehow I don't feel like discussing them now.

bklvr · Guest Usergroups: None **Thanks** Gender:

Ophelia - yes, I have read A Thousand Splendid Suns and it is one of my favorites. I will find that thread on here for sure.

Can't wait to hear what you think of Fire Bell!

irishrosem · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:17 pm Post subject:

Just to clarify I didn’t list those titles as actual suggestions, just to demonstrate the types of books I was thinking we might want to consider.

MadArchitect · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:53 pm Post subject:

Too late! You named them, and now I'm holding you to them!

Mr. Pessimistic · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject:

Niall001 · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:09 pm Post subject:

Chris OConnor · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject:

How about this....

You guys pick the next fiction book and tell me what you decided. I suggest doing so rather quickly though, as we want to give people enough time to get a copy long before the reading period starts.

Mad, would you like to handle the selection process?

Ophelia · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:56 pm Post subject:

Chris OConnor · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 4:08 pm Post subject:

Exactly! I thought you were up to no good. LOL

It is just that I need some help once in a while. Mad is a pretty organized and thorough person. He can handle this very well if he has the time and desire.

Oh, and you're doing a really good job of greeting new people in the Intro forum and I do appreciate it. Thank you, Ophelia. Smile

Chris OConnor · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:05 pm Post subject:

Persepolis is non-fiction.

Ophelia

I suggest:

We need to talk about Kevin, by Lionel Shriver.

This novel is nothing like what you usually read about violence, about teenagers, about violent children or boys.
I found it touching, puzzling, shocking --in an unusual way (graphic violence is kept to the bare minimum).

The narrator is the mother of a teenage murderer. What feels very weird at first is that her view seems to be so much AGAINST her son, in a way which is not caricatural-- hence disturbing.

There is no easy explanation, as opposed to movies in which children are clearly born without feelings, and we are told, as in the film "Rosemary's Baby" that the child was fathered by the Devil himself.

What is it about fiction that makes it so memorable when it works?
Art. Sometimes genius. The ability to somehow condense experience in a way that no book written by, say, a journalist or an academic, can equal.
[ As opposed to the novel, I have recently read awork by an academic: " Lost boys: why our sons turn violent and how we can save them."
I have nothing negative to say about this book, but I realize that now, after a few days, I remember nothing].

My first impression was that this was somehow breaking a taboo-- one does not, even in fiction, write a book about a child, least of all one's child, in a negative way. I am not a parent, but I wondered how parents could react to such unusual material -- I was bothered enough to check on the internet what readers and critics had written -- everything was positive.
Here is the link to amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/We-Need-Talk-About-Kevin/dp/B0002TX4QQ/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199487332&sr=1-1


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