Hrabel and the lists

[Jay Herzog]

I'd second the Bohimil Hrabel recommendation. Even in in translation
his prose sings. His 'I served the King of England' is great too.
Something about the beer soaked absurdism of much of Czech lit appeals
to me--I liked The Good Soldier Schweick (sp?) quite a bit too (the
Catch 22 of WW I).

My list, if I could decide on one,  would probably include a few SF
novels like Dhalgren and A Scanner Darkly just because I read them
before I was exposed to much "serious" literature (actually both those
books put the lie to such facile categorization). Glad to see Keith
put Valis and Three Stigmata on his list to represent the sci-fi
ghetto.

I just started the new Pamuk novel 'Snow', and am enjoying it so far...

J.

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