NP:Greatest Dead Novelist

[kelber at mindspring.com]

We all have our own criteria for what makes a novel great.  For me, for a novel to be among the greatest, it has to:

1. Be intellectually thought-provoking.
2. Cause me to stop reading now and then to drift into emotional reveries.
3.  Be enjoyable to read, i.e it shouldn't feel like a chore or a duty to get through it.
4.  Have memorable characters.
5.  Have humor.

Gravity's Rainbow and Brothers Karamazov fulfill all of these for me.

Canterbury Tales misses 1 and 2.  Ulysses misses 3.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: mikebailey at speakeasy.net
>Sent: Sep 15, 2006 2:47 AM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: NP:Greatest Dead Novelist

>
>Do I become a lightweight if I see them as a sweet spot of 20th century lit, humanistic but not nihilistic, not fanatic, usually not terribly depressing, and full of humour, imaginative but not intrusively experimental?  Smooth like a good scotch.
>

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