This week’s blog post is dedicated to 5 good books that you probably haven’t read. Perhaps I am being presumptuous and you have read them. Anyway here they are:
The Legend of the Holy Drinker by Joseph Roth (1939)
Genre: General Fiction
This compact and wistful novella is a great introduction to Joseph Roth’s writing. The Austro Hungarian author succumbed to a premature alcohol related death shortly after finishing this allegorical tale about seeking redemption.
My Review: The story is about an alcoholic tramp by the name of Andreas, who lives under bridges of the river Seine in Paris. Andreas finds himself in luck when he is given two hundred francs by a stranger, which allows him to recapture something of his pre-tramp existence… (More)
Maggie Cassidy by Jack Kerouac (1959)
Genre: Semi Autobiographical
Maggie Cassidy is a meditation on being in love and youthful innocence. Unlike Kerouac’s seminal work, On the Road, it has a more conventional prose style. This is a captivating book full of profound insights.
My Review: Set in the close-knit working-class French-Canadian community of Lowell, Massachusetts, Maggie Cassidy is a semi-autobiographical account of Kerouac’s adolescence. The story is recounted through the teenage mind of the author’s alter ego, Jack Duluoz…(More)
Novel with Cocaine by M. Ageyev (1934)
Genre: Transgressive
This is a nihilistic and philosophical novel about adolescence and addiction that could be described as Dostoyevskian. Since the time of its publication in book form there has been intense speculation over who wrote it.
My Review: Set in the years immediately before and after the Russian Revolution, Novel with Cocaine follows the life of Vadim, a Moscow adolescent and student. Vadim is prone to self-loathing and disdainful of others, none more so than his mother, whose… (More)
The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck (1947)
Genre: General Fiction
Although The Wayward Bus is one of Steinbeck’s lesser known novels, it is in this reader’s opinion one of his best. The author’s deep understanding of human nature is in evidence throughout.
My Review: An unlikely group of characters are travelling through rural South California by bus. In his unique style Steinbeck proceeds to explore each personality in intricate detail; their inhibitions, motivations, intimate thoughts and hopes for the future… (More)
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West (1939)
Genre: Modernist
The Day of the Locust is a short, plotless and poignant novel with a surreal aspect that is prescient in its prediction of the Hollywood-obsessed society of today, with its fixation on celebrity and image.
My Review: Talented artist Tod Hackett has relocated to Los Angeles where he is working as a movie set designer. Tod develops an infatuation for Faye – a beautiful, blonde and brazen aspiring actress, and sometime call girl. When her father, a vaudevillian…(More)
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