john barth/nights

[Riot Riot]

So far i´ve read End of the Road, Sot-Weed Factor and Coming Soon!!! and I´m reading Giles Goat-Boy at the moment. I liked SWF the best while CS!!! was a bore imo. None of the books involves the Arabian Nights, but I would really like to read the recommended Chimera and The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor. Unfortunately, Barth is barely known in Germany, only three of his books I think have been translated yet and most of the bookstores, if any, don´t have english copies. However, I was able to get a used copy of Sabbatical in Amsterdam which I will read soon. Has anybody read this one, any opinions?

> It's really hard to pick a "best Barth."  My personal favorite is
> Chimera, but it's somewhat atypical: short, very tightly put together,
> a masterpiece of story structure.  Involves the Arabian Nights.
> 
> My next-best favorite is The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, which
> also heavily involves the Arabian Nights.
> 
> And I love the early ones: A Floating Opera, End of the Road, and that
> huge parable of the American university, Giles Goat-Boy, or the
> Revised New Syllabus.
> 
> And inescapably, The Sot-Weed Factor, my introduction to Barth and to
> the post-modern novel.  It was utterly unlike anything else I'd ever
> read.
> 
> On 9/27/06, bob mccart <lebishar at gmail.com> wrote:
> > What's the best Barth? What Barth stories involve Arabian Nights?
> >

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