doorstoppers

[rich]

I read Terra Nostra and remember liking it--doubt i'd read it
again--Milan Kundera of all people wrote an afterword in the edition I
read. it's pretty baroque in places and nicely strange--crowds of
women giving birth along the Seine, the white lords of hell section is
pretty cool, the Escorial sections are somewhat deranged.

Christopher Unborn had its moments too. but Fuentes later writing
became more reportage and on the bland side IMHO--obviousness is a bad
thing for a writer (which I think is one of Vollman's major
weaknesses--I'm obsessed with reading about the eastern front during
WW2 but Europe Central left me yawning alot--if u like that period,
you gotta read another monster Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman)

Let's not talk about the movie version of Old Gringo.

one of the best books I've read about Mexico is Earl Shorris' Under
the Fifth Sun' which equals anything written about the place. it's
also like 660 pgs. and about the life of Pancho Villa. very
phantasmagorical (to quote daffy duck)

On 11/17/08, malignd at aol.com <malignd at aol.com> wrote:
> Anyone ever read Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes?  It's about 800 pages.
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> I once tried to read The Old Gringo which is less than 200 pages and is
> about Ambrose Bierce and Pancho Villa, for God's sake, and I still couldn't
> finish it, it was so grindingly dull.
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org; malignd at aol.com
> Sent: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:56 am
> Subject: Re: doorstoppers
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> Ved Mehta?  Continents of Exile maybe?
>
> Speaking of New Yorker writers, what about Harold Brodkey's ginormous The
> Runaway - with its 100-page pseudo-Joycian description of masturbation?
> Anyone
> read it?
>
>
> --- On Sun, 11/16/08, malignd at aol.com <malignd at aol.com> wrote:
>
>> From: malignd at aol.com <malignd at aol.com>
>> Subject: Re: doorstoppers
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Date: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 7:41 PM
>> Hate to do this by country, but what's the one by the
>> blind Indian guy who writes for the New Yorker?
>>  That's, by reputation, a blow to the skull.
>>
>>
>> A Suitable Boy is in print, visible in stores and so
>> I'd guess
>> reasonably widely read.  It's certainly well worth
>> reading.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: James Kyllo <jkyllo at gmail.com>
>> To: markekohut at yahoo.com
>> Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 1:44 pm
>> Subject: Re: re doorstoppers
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>> A Suitable Boy is in print, visible in stores and so
>> I'd guess
>> reasonably wid
> ely read.  It's certainly well worth
>> reading.
>>
>> J
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 3:38 PM, Mark Kohut
>> <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> > I was thinking in one post of some BIG DOORSTOPPERS
>> that NO ONE (almost;
>> maybe) reads anymore?.......there are those which, of
>> course, are harder to know
>> of by definition....
>> >
>> > Pilgrimage....by Dorothy Richardson.......longer than
>> Proust........once
>> famous.
>> >
>> > Miss MacIntosh, My Darling...Marguerite Young......??
>> >
>> > A Suitable Boy........Vikram Seth    ???...
>> >
>> > the Lanny Budd series........longer than
>> Pilgrimage.......Upton Sinclair
>> >
>> > The Seducer.........??
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > others?
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>>
>>
>> --
>> http://www.last.fm/user/Auto_Da_Fe
>> http://www.pop.nu/en/show_collection.asp?user=2412
>> http://www.librarything.com/profile/Auto_Da_Fe
>> http://www.thedetails.co.uk/
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