Best novel of the quarter century

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michel [mailto:mryc2903 at yahoo.fr]
>
> Otto schreef:
> > Which ones are better? Or more important?
> >
> > DeLillo? Roth? McCarthy? 

which one?  Charlie and Eugene both made important contributions.  And I liked Mary McCarthy's "Birds of America"

...but anyway, of Cormac McCarthy is there one with a bitta humor, some paranoia and some wordplay, which one can tell when one reads it that it has a lot more meanings than one is catching but even so is a great tale?   

> >
> And in which language?
> 
> Michel.
> 

there have been frustratingly many books recommended on this list in various languages!  There was one author awhile back the description of whom made me want to learn Catalonian.  And this week, I want to learn Flemish Dutch so I can read Louis Paul Boon.  Before that, I was wanting to learn Italian to read that philosopher who says the world is a prison camp (though War in 1972 said the world is a ghetto) And I still haven't learned French to read Villon et beaucoups al, or Latin to read Duns Scotus!

I do have a little German (my favorite quote is from Thomas Mann: "Sehen Sie bloss die Sterne hinan!") - going to buy a video and book of "Die Verlorene Ehre" in the next few weeks-- wondering would reading "Die Enden der Parabel" be enjoyably different from reading "Gravity's Rainbow".... Parabel/Parabellum/Parable is a wordplay in German, right?

(a-and how do the Germans manage to say "Poststrasse" quickly?)