562. The Golden Notebook

The Golden Notebook
Doris Lessing
1962
Around 640 pages

A book about color coded notebooks is right up my alley, but I actually didn't enjoy this novel too much. My distaste for post-modernism is well-documented already, but we can add another entry to the pile.

Anna Wulf recorded her life into four notebooks: red for her experience as a Communist, yellow for her doomed love affair, black for her time in Southern Rhodesia, and blue for her inner thoughts. She hopes to combine all the stories into a fifth, golden notebook. It's an intentionally fragmented story that I had a hard time getting a grip on.

Which was likely the point, she wanted to tell the story in a non linear way, which is always a much more real way of capturing the nature of memories. But I liked the premise more than the execution, which is typical of my relationship with Doris.

I might have appreciated this if it was bit shorter, but she dragged out longer than I thought was necessary. Could have lived without this one.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

In 2005, TIME magazine called The Golden Notebook one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.

UP NEXT: The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard

561. Labyrinths

Labyrinths
Jorge Luis Borges
1962
Around 260 pages

I've already checked off Borges' previous work on this List, Ficciones. Labyrinths is a collection that features 13 stories from Ficciones, which meant I was halfway done with this book before I even started. Luckily, there were also some new stories, essays, and parables for me to sink my greedy fangs into. 

I don't know if I have ever read an author who has read as much as Borges. He references such a wide range of texts, that I swear he would have been a fellow List-er if he had been around for the glorious 1001 era. 

This is a short and easily digestible collection. If I had to pick out a favorite story, it would still be The Garden of the Forking Paths. I did enjoy reading his essays, particularly "The Argentine Writers and Tradition." I love it when writers write about writing.

It's strange that the List included basically a repeat, but of course, I'm happing to read anything Borges comes up with...again.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

In 2008 the London Society of Authors selected this as one of 50 outstanding translations from the last 50 years.

UP NEXT: The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

560. Girl With Green Eyes

Girl With Green Eyes

Edna O'Brien
1962
Around 215 pages

I'm not entirely sure why I don't click with Edna O'Brien. Typically, I enjoy this genre, but I never quite connect with her female characters, who are Catholic, naive, and make terrible decisions about men. So I found this novel to be a bit of a bore.

Kate Brady is fresh out of convent school and working at a grocery shop in Dublin. She rooms with her childhood friend Baba, who is much freer than Kate. Kate meets the much older married author, Eugene, and falls for him, despite her Catholic-induced sexual repression.

This was a pretty predictable story if you have an ounce of world experience. Kate doesn't, so she doesn't have the easiest time in this novel. I didn't find any of the characters particularly charming, and O'Brien's writing isn't engaging to me. Definitely skippable.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

First published with the title The Lonely Girl.

O'Brien met and married, against her parents' wishes, the Irish writer Ernest Gébler, and the couple moved to London. Initially believing he deserved credit for helping her become an accomplished writer, Gébler came to believe he was the author of O'Brien's books. Sigh.

UP NEXT: Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges

559. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Giorgio Bassani
1962
Around 250 pages

The novel wasted no time informing us that the entire Finzi-Contini family died in the Holocaust. Our story begins with our narrator visiting the family's mausoleum. Of course, I had seen the movie for my other mistress, the 1001 Movies List, so I already aware this was going to be an upsetting read. 

We then return to the narrator's childhood, and his relationship with the Jewish Finzi-Contini family as Mussolini rises to power. This involves a deep friendship with the son Alberto and an unrequited crush on the daughter Micol. 

Human beings can adapt to any circumstances, and it's crazy to read about what became "normal" under the racial laws of fascist Italy. Unlike a work by somebody like Primo Levi, Bassani isn't outlining the horrors of the concentration camps. Instead, the terrible fate of the characters hangs over the story, imbibing ordinary childhood moments with deep horror.

Definitely not an easy read, and I find these novels difficult to shake. More difficult to shake than our novels that strive to be as disgusting as possible. So it's hard for me to recommend it, but of course it's a powerful story.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

According to Bassani, 183 Jews living in Ferrara were deported to German concentration camps.

Film adaptation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

UP NEXT: Girl With Green Eyes by Edna O'Brien

558. Stranger in a Strange Land

Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert Heinlein
1961
Around 400 pages

There are two versions of this novel floating around out there. There's the original published version, and then there is the unedited manuscript that Heinlein's widow published posthumously. I read the longer novel, because I don't believe in shortcuts. Also, I couldn't find the other version anywhere.

Valentine Michael Smith was born on the doomed Envoy space shuttle, and raised by Martians. He is ordered by the Martians to go to Earth after the spacecraft The Champion makes contact with the Martians. Smith is unaccustomed to the strange aspects of Earth, like women and gravity, so he is confined to a hospital. Nurse Jill Boardman becomes fascinated with the newest patient, and details her meeting with Smith to her boyfriend Ben, a reporter who warns Jill that Smith is a huge threat to the government. Jill conspires to protect him, although he can make people disappear just by looking at them, so he might not need too much protection.

I was aware of the term "grok" from doing crossword puzzles, but that was the extent of my prior knowledge of this story. This novel turned out to be a pleasant surprise, sci fi being rather rare on the List. I always have fun reading the past predictions of the future, which are often startlingly accurate in this genre. I enjoyed Heinlein's take on where religion is going, even if it freaked me out.

After reading this novel, I realize what a cultural impact the story had on pop culture. So an important and fun novel. The sixties are already more fun than the last two decades combined.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

"Stranger in a Strange Land" is a direct quotation from the King James Bible (Exodus 2:22).

Contains an early description of the waterbed, an invention that made its real-world debut in 1968. Charles Hall, who brought a waterbed design to the United States patent office, was refused a patent on the grounds that Heinlein's descriptions in Stranger in a Strange Land, constituted prior art.

UP NEXT: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani

557. Faces in the Water

Faces in the Water
Janet Frame
1961
Around 255 pages

This novel beat One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to the punch when it came to upsetting electroshock treatments. And our protagonist doesn't hate women, so that's another point to Frame.

Faces in the Water's narrative is clearly autobiographical; its details are too chilling to be secondhand. A woman is confined to a mental hospital in New Zealand. I feel like there are many different accounts of electroshock therapy. In stories like this, it's a gruesome practice inflicted on the unwilling. I've also read that Hollywood greatly exaggerated the horror of the procedure, although I guess it is entirely dependent on who is conducting the EST. In Frame's case, it really seems like torture. 

As always, I appreciate hearing from a corner of the world that the List generally doesn't spotlight. Of course, this book made New Zealand look like a nightmare, but I still appreciate it. Frame's real life story is inspirational; society deemed her a misfit, but she wrote her way out. 

Another female author sticking it to the man.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Following years of psychiatric hospitalization, Frame was scheduled for a lobotomy that was canceled days before the procedure, after her debut publication of short stories was unexpectedly awarded a national literary prize.

UP NEXT: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

556. Franny and Zooey

Franny and Zooey
J.D. Salinger
1961

Around 200 pages

Like many angsty teens that clicked with The Catcher in the Rye, I eagerly sought out Franny and Zooey after my experience with Holden. This one wasn't quite as memorable, but I still appreciate Salinger's balance of pessimism and optimism. 

Franny and Zoey Glass are siblings who live in the Upper East Side. The first story focuses on Franny going on a weekend date with her college boyfriend, who is a tool. The second story centers on Zooey, who reads a letter written by his brother Buddy, which concerns the suicide of their other brother Seymour. 

I feel like I've had the above expression on many dates, so the first part of this novel was very relatable. I wasn't as interested in the spiritualism aspects of the story, but Salinger captures grief and family dynamics well. Shame that this is the last we will hear from him.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The book's characters inspired much of the movie The Royal Tenenbaums.

Spent 26 weeks at the top of The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers list in 1961 and 1962.

UP NEXT: Faces in the Water by Janet Frame

555. A Severed Head

A Severed Head
Iris Murdoch
1961
Around 205 pages

The big 555, the beginning of all my favorite characters' phone numbers. We don't always get to celebrate these milestones with a masterpiece (it's a milestone because I say it is), so I am going to cherish this occasion.

Martin Lynch-Gibbon is a wine merchant in his forties, who is cheating on his older wife Antonia with Georgie, a student in her twenties. Martin doesn't really consider his philandering immoral, but he's shocked to discover that his wife has been cheating on him with her psychoanalyst Palmer. Martin is one of those characters who only wants what he can't have, so throughout the novel he cycles through feelings for Antonia, Georgie, and Honor (Palmer's half-sister) depending on who they are sleeping with at the time.

This novel is like a game of musical mattresses, everybody is sleeping with everybody else. Murdoch is a very funny writer, and I was genuinely surprised by some of the twists and turns she came up with. She has a way of writing like a story like it's a mystery, even when it's a farce. 

I'm so predictable, but another five stars for Iris.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a 1970 film with Ian Holm.

UP NEXT: Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

554. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark
1961

Around 170 pages

I wish I had a teacher like Jean Brodie. Besides the whole, you know, pushing her students into bed with a married man part. The closest I had was a geometry teacher who would tell us he was suicidal by making all the math problems about him hanging himself or jumping off a building. Jean definitely sounds cooler.

Jean Brodie believes in educating her students by filling them in on her personal life as much as possible. The six girls that Jean singles out gain notoriety as the "Brodie set" (which is a much more appealing moniker than the Slug Club). Jean is involved in a love triangle between the singing teacher and the married art teacher. We learn early on in the story that one of the Brodie set will betray Jean later in life, who steadily rebukes the stereotype of a schoolmarmish spinster.

Non chronological stories can be confusing, but I appreciated the frequent flash forwards in this novel. They helped set up the main mystery: who betrayed Jean Brodie? I really loved the setting of Edinburgh in the 1930s, and as someone who dreams of being a British school child, I enjoyed the descriptions of academic life in the era.

This is also a definite improvement from Spark's last novel, so I'm excited to watch her continue to sharpen her skills as a writer.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present.

Jean Brodie was inspired by a teacher of Spark's who encouraged her to write.

UP NEXT: A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch

553. Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse
Gunter Grass
1961

Around 200 pages

Well, that didn't leave quite as much of an impression as The Tin Drum. Oskar Matzerah is a hard act to follow. 

Our narrator Pilenz tells us about his friend Joachim Mahlke, who disappears near the end of World War II. Pilenz isn't that concerned with telling us Mahlke's story in chronological order, and it's also unclear who he is talking to (Mahlke or the reader?). For this reason, I found it rather difficult to follow, though I understand the reasoning behind the choices Grass made.

I was disappointed by this just because I liked his previous work. This was still a well written story, just not particularly memorable. I do always appreciate it when our authors can keep it short and I don't have to start playing the wrap it up musical cue.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

 John Irving called Grass "simply the most original and versatile writer alive."

UP NEXT: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

552. Solaris

Solaris
Stanislaw Lem
1961
Around 205 pages

Another crossover, as Solaris was also featured on the movie list. But it's not a very faithful adaptation, so it wasn't too much of a spoiler. We don't get sci fi books very often on this List, so they should be treasured, even when they are kind of boring. 

A distant planet named Solaris is covered in an ocean-like gel that appears to be a a living and sentient being. I like this interpretation of aliens, because I believe aliens wouldn't look anything like life on earth and a giant ocean blob seems accurate. Kris Kelvin, a psychologist, arrives on a research station hovering near Solaris to attempt to communicate with the entity, and interpret the phenomena that occurs on the surface.

This is a trippy story that clearly had an enormous influence on other sci fi stories, with Arrival and Inception immediately coming to mind. I liked the premise more than the execution, but that's only because I don't really go for the hallucinatory plots. 

I just want to get to Douglas Adams. All the sci fi stories we've had so far are so serious.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Lem himself observed that none of the film versions depict much of the extraordinary physical and psychological "alienness" of the Solaris ocean.

UP NEXT: Cat and Mouse by Gunter Grass

551. Catch-22

Catch-22
Joseph Heller
1961
Around 450 pages

Catch-22 is one of my favorite novels. Even amusing novels aren't often laugh out loud funny, but this book never fails to make me chortle. This is a refreshing take on the war genre, which isn't usually a laugh riot.

The novel is episodic and follows anti hero John Yossarian, a U.S. Army bombardier, and his squadron based on an island off the coast of Italy. As you would expect, the squadron is picked off one by one, with some endings sadder than others. I could have done without the rape, and I wish "Aarfy" a violent reception in literary hell. 

Heller is a master at balancing the absurd and the tragedy of war, which is a delicate operation that could have easily tipped over in either direction. This is such a quotable book, with some of my standout lines being:

• “Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
• “He knew everything there was to know about literature, except how to enjoy it.”
• “Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for.”

Definitely one of the funniest books I've read, and my favorite war time novel. Essential reading.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Heller said that the novel had been influenced by Celine, Waugh and Nabokov.

Heller wrote a sequel in 1994.

UP NEXT: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

550. The Violent Bear It Away

The Violent Bear It Away
Flannery O'Connor
1960
Around 260 pages

550! Can ya believe it? I totally can, I have been doing this longer than Sirius Black's stint in Azkaban. We celebrate with a Flannery O'Connor novel, which is not how I would have chosen to party. 

Francis Marion Tarwater was kidnapped by his great uncle and raised in a cabin in the woods. His great uncle believes that they are prophets. We've certainly had quite our share of wacky parental figures lately. Anyway, the great uncle dies, so Francis returns to his Uncle Rayber, who has long believed that Francis died. Rayber attempts to undo some of the damage that being kidnapped by a religious nutcase inflicted, but Francis rejects Rayber's secular reform as much as he resisted his great uncle's fanaticism. 

O'Connor was Catholic, and the main theme of this novel seemed to be that the well-educated modern blends faith and science, which are complementary. As somebody with religious trauma, I'm much more anti religion, certainly anti Catholic church, but of course anything in extremes is dangerous. 

Characters behaved outrageously and O'Connor explored themes that I'm not too interested in, so I thought this was kind of a bore.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Final novel published before O'Connor's death.

UP NEXT: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

549. How It Is

How It Is
Samuel Beckett
1961

Around 110 pages

Oh how I loathe thee, and we are not even close to checking the last Beckett novel off the List. At least Beckett keeps it short.

Our narrator is monologuing as he crawls through endless mud. Which I interpreted as an allegory of my journey with this List. I like that Beckett has one big idea and sticks to it, but I just really don't click with his style.

I know hating Beckett is beating a dead horse, but the List keeps resurrecting the horse, so it's not my fault. Time to set the horse zombie on fire.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

The title is Beckett's literal translation of the French phrase, comment c'est (how it is), a pun on the French verb commencer or 'to begin'.

UP NEXT: The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor

548. Our Ancestors

Our Ancestors
Italo Calvino
1960
Around 400 pages

Well, aren't we sneaky. Our Ancestors is actually three novels that were later published as one volume. I'm just saying, after completing this List, I will have read way more than 1001 novels. Which really messes with the aesthetic I have going on here.

First we have the Cloven Viscount, which tells the story of the Viscount Medardo of Terralba, who is split in two after he takes a cannonball to the chest in the seventeenth century Turkish wars. He is then split into two beings, Gramo (the Bad) and Buono (the Good). Baron in the Trees tells the story of Cosimo, who doesn't want to eat snail soup so climbs the trees of his home garden and refuses to come down again. Finally, we have The Nonexistent Knight, which is a parody of medieval literature that involves a knight who is actually a lucid empty set of armor. 

Well, this certainly checked a lot of my boxes. We have fantasy, medieval romance, people having sex in trees. Italo Calvino must be one of the most creative authors on this List. You never know what he is going to come up with, and he quickly imbues any fantasy world with life and humor. He doesn't overstay his welcome, either. Who knew fantasy stories could be so short?

I enjoyed the Cloven Viscount the most, with The Nonexistent Knight probably coming in last. Still, a fun volume that allowed me to forget we have a Beckett novel coming up next.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

With If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, The Baron in the Trees is Calvino's best-selling work of fiction.

The Non Existent Knight was adapted into an animated film in 1970.

UP NEXT: How It Is by Samuel Beckett

547. The Country Girls

The Country Girls
Edna O'Brien
1960
Around 225 pages

I have failed to properly welcome in the 1960s, so I'll do it now: we made it to the 1960s! I'm excited to welcome in a new era, all this World War II and immediate post war literature was hard on the soul. Although I am sure there is plenty of depressing content ahead. Please don't take that as a challenge, Powers That Be.

Kate Brady and Bridget Brennan are two country mice from Dublin who have been friends since childhood. They both want to find love in the big city, which sounds like the premise of a 90s sitcom. They are interesting frenemies, and even though their adventures are tame by today's standards, this was still publicly burned by a priest, which obviously makes me like it more.

This is O'Brien's debut novel, and she managed to finish it in three weeks. It does end rather abruptly, but this novel is part of a series, so it makes sense that there is no satisfying conclusion. Not the most memorable or entertaining of novels, but I'm intrigued by her style and eager to see her hone her voice as an author.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Banned by the Irish censorship board.

UP NEXT: Our Ancestors by Italo Calvino

546. To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
1960
Around 340 pages

This book was required reading at my nearly all white high school, to prove that we could all talk about racism, as long as it was coming from a white lady. I know this is many people's favorite novel, but I've always found it overrated.

Even if you haven't read this book, you've probably gathered what the plot is based on all the cultural references. The story takes place in Alabama during the Great Depression. Six-year-old Scout lives with her brother Jem and her widowed father Atticus, who is a daddy in more than one sense of the word. Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused of raping a white woman, and Atticus is appointed as his attorney. Naturally, this makes the white people mad. 

Lee does an excellent job capturing a complex story through the eyes of a child. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of stories from the point of view of children, but she deftly handles the perspective of a kid, even if Scout is more astute than any real six year old would be.

I don't know if this should be treated as the definitive treatise on racism in America, but it's a well intentioned story with a somewhat predictable ending.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The New York Times announced To Kill a Mockingbird as the best book of the past 125 years in 2021.

When Lee was 10 years old, a white woman near Monroeville accused a black man named Walter Lett of raping her. The story and the trial were covered by her father's newspaper, which reported that Lett was convicted and sentenced to death. After a series of letters appeared claiming Lett had been falsely accused, his sentence was commuted to life in prison. He died there of tuberculosis in 1937.

UP NEXT: The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien

545. Rabbit, Run

Rabbit, Run
John Updike
1960
Around 265 pages

There have been books I have hated because the main character is so insufferable. But I honestly think in those cases the fault is in the writing, because there are other novels, like this one or Lolita, where the protagonist is a garbage person, and I still enjoyed the book. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is just the worst, but this was still a fun read.

Rabbit is a former high school basketball star, and like many jocks, married young and has a boring sales job. His wife Janice is pregnant, and they have a two year old named Nelson. Rabbit finds his ordinary middle class existence insufferable, and searches for a way to escape. Naturally, this involves cheating on his wife.

We all know those people who peaked in high school, then live a mundane existence in Pennsylvania. Or at least I do, because I live in Pennsylvania. Luckily my high school years sucked, so that wasn't the case for me. Rabbit feels very real, and I appreciate Updike's straightforward portrayal of a man capable of redemption who is making terrible life decisions. 

I'm glad the rest of the Rabbit series is on this List, as I am very invested in this character. I can see why some might be fatigued by yet another story about an unhappily married man, but I think Updike's style makes this worth a read.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Updike said he wrote Rabbit, Run in a response to Kerouac's On The Road.

UP NEXT: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

544. Promise at Dawn

Promise at Dawn
Romain Gary
1960
Around 350 pages

I knew I could trust Romain Gary to get us out of our slump. Romain has been through some shit, and ended up killing himself in his 60s. After everything he had seen and recovered from, I can't help but wonder what was catastrophically different about that moment. In his memoir, he says he always felt at peace with the world when he was eating pickles. Who was in charge of getting this man pickles??

Romain Gary had a smother, who depended on her son for all her happiness and dream fulfillment. She expects Romain to become a master tennis player, a famous violinist, a respected diplomat, and the killer of Adolf Hitler. Romain is driven by the desire to please his mother, which leads him to joining the French air force during World War II. 

I was glad I had read Roots of Heaven prior to this, as he makes several references to the novel and points to areas in his real life where he drew inspiration for Morel. Gary writes with astonishing honesty and caring, which I would imagine is an arduous task with a memoir. He does not villainize or exonerate his mother, or himself. 

Romain Gary is my hero, and gone too soon, like many others on this List.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

After learning that his wife had an affair with Clint Eastwood, Gary challenged him to a duel, but Eastwood declined.

UP NEXT: Rabbit Run by John Updike

543. Absolute Beginners

Absolute Beginners
Colin MacInnes 
1959
Around 210 pages

Okay, I'm starting to suspect we are entering a rough patch. I mean, another teenager who kind of sucks (as most teenagers do), growing up in a city? And the main character isn't given a name? Did we really need another one of these?

The structure is somewhat fresh, as we get one day in the life of our teenage protagonist from each summer month in 1958. His girlfriend is getting married to her gay boss and his father is sick, so it's a pretty pivotal year. Being 19 is definitely a weird time, since you're sorta an adult but sorta not. 

And I guess this novel does a good job of capturing that confusion, but I found the ending very cheesy. I was immediately turned off by the main character's behavior toward Suzette, who I guess let him speak to her like that because she is also a teenager.

Another sort of forgettable novel, and hopefully Romain Gary will end this streak with his handsomeness and prose.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a musical film in 1986 that featured David Bowie.

UP NEXT: Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary

542. Billy Liar

Billy Liar
Keith Waterhouse
1959
Around 190 pages

Well, this novel gave me a great new insult to try out ("Look what's crawled out of the cheese."). Other than that, it didn't leave much of an impression.

Billy is a working class 19 year old who lives with his parents and grandmother in Yorkshire. He is also a compulsive liar, and is engaged to two women. Did I mention I hate Billy?

I guess this spawned all sorts of adaptations, so other people were more charmed by Billy than I was. It is a very British story that I can see resonating with people with a similar upbringing. Unfortunately, I am an American, so. Forgettable.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series.

UP NEXT: Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes

541. Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch
William S. Burroughs
1959
Around 290 pages

William S. Burroughs killed his wife, and I really wish he didn't have four novels on this List. But the beat goes on, and things are going to get even grosser than they are already. I actually own this book, because I borrowed it from my brother's girlfriend and then they broke up. It's my favorite grift to run, it's also how I got a book of Chekov plays. 

There's not really a plot here, it's more of a hallucinatory nightmare that lasts nearly 300 pages. It's violent and disgusting, and heroin is bad. Like his repulsive ancestors, Marquis de Sade and Comte de Lautreamont, Burroughs is doing his best to shock us. I don't believe there is much else here.

I also had to watch the movie for the 1001 list, so I've really received the full Naked Lunch experience. I do like the title, but that wasn't even Burroughs' idea, so I can't give him credit.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Burroughs said that Jack Kerouac suggested the title.

Banned in Boston and Los Angeles. The ban was lifted in Massachusetts by the state supreme court in 1966, with Norman Mailer supporting the work with his testimony. Norman Mailer also tried to kill his wife, so I guess he was a fan.

UP NEXT: Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse

540. The Tin Drum

The Tin Drum
Gunter Grass
1959
Around 575 pages

“Even bad books are books and therefore sacred.” I have this quote on my whiteboard, as a reminder when I'm looking at my writing and grimacing. It's also my philosophy on this blog, and gets me through the worst this List has to offer. Anyway, that quote is from this book, which earns it major points, but luckily that's not the only thing this strange novel has going for it.

Oskar was born in 1924 Poland, and retains the stature of a child for his entire life. Because that wasn't eccentric enough, he also possesses the ability to shriek at a decibel that can shatter glass. Also he is has a tin drum he will do anything to protect.

Oskar is an original character, who I am guessing had an influence on John Irving's Owen Meany. I love the idea of incorporating magic realism into a World War II story, it's not a setting that usually gets that treatment. I know this premise would make most people roll their eyes, but Grass really grounds his story so that Oskar feels real, as unusual as it is to have an ageless dwarf with a remarkably active sex life. 

I look forward to reading more Grass down the line.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Film adaptation won Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.

UP NEXT: Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

539. Cider with Rosie

Cider with Rosie
Laurie Lee
1959
Around 285 pages

Don't be silly, Laurie Lee is a man. It's only been two entries since we had a female author, so we aren't due for another 40 books. Instead, this is an autobiography depicting Lee's younger years in England after World War I. Yawn.

The book is divided into vignettes that explore different themes from Lee's life. Obviously, the one that stood out to me is the one where he is planning to rape an overweight girl on her way from church with his friends. They end up chickening out, although it's hard to say why, but I still found it upsetting. 

Usually, I can get into heavy detail about everyday life in novels, but I didn't find Lee's prose charming enough to stay interested. I don't feel like he did anything particularly innovative, but this will be enjoyable for people who enjoy reading about this period.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Sold over six million copies.

The identity of Rosie was revealed years later to be Lee's distant cousin Rosalind Buckland.

UP NEXT: The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass

538. Henderson the Rain King

Henderson the Rain King
Saul Bellow
1959

Around 340 pages

Now we are back to the white man's perspective of Africa and the people who live there. Man, I can't wait until we are done with the Bellow novels on the List.

Eugene Henderson is having a mid life crisis, and feels unfulfilled, even though women want to sleep with him all the time. He's basically Holden Caulfield, all grown up. He goes on a spiritual journey to Africa and hires a native guide Romilayu.  He has a series of adventures, and unwittingly becomes a Rain King, because white guys are always being crowned in these stories.

I've never clicked with Bellow's writing style, but I definitely didn't click with the story this time either. I found Eugene insufferable, and just didn't need another depiction of primitive tribes who end up worshipping a white visitor. I did enjoy the discussions between Henderson and King Dahfu, but that's about it.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Ranked number 21 on Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Novels in the English language.

Bellow biographer James Atlas and others have shown that quite a few passages and ideas were lifted from a book titled The Cattle Complex in East Africa written by Bellow's anthropology professor Melville Herskovits who supervised his senior thesis at Northwestern University in 1937.

UP NEXT: Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee

537. Memento Mori

Memento Mori
Muriel Spark
1959
Around 230 pages

Welcome to the blog Muriel Spark! Female authors are rare on this List, but we are getting a good group together, with Iris Murdoch, Dorothy Sayers, and Elizabeth Bowen. Keep crushing it ladies.

A circle of elderly rich Brits are all receiving the same phone call: a mysterious voice telling them "Remember you must die." However, they all hear a different voice, so some hear the voice as old, some young, some foreign. Understandably, this ruffles the characters' feathers, and some old secrets bubble to the surface.

What a great premise for a story. It almost felt like a prompt I would get in a creative writing class. I enjoyed our crew of characters, who each experience a different reaction to the phone calls. Lettie Colston completely panics, while Godfrey, a serial cheater, gets angry. This was a great entry point for the characters, and she wrapped up the story in a really unique way.

Proof that the lives of the elderly can still be fascinating. I know my twilight years will hold similar intrigue.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into television in 1992 with Maggie Smith.

UP NEXT: Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow

536. Billiards at Half-Past Nine

Billiards at Half-Past Nine
Heinrich Boll
1959
Around 290 pages

We are almost done with the 1950s! I feel like many of these authors were in a state of shock from World War II this decade, so it will be interesting to see the zeitgeist shift in the 1960s. 

I love stories that are contained in one significant (or insignificant, I'm easy) day. The novel takes place in 1958 Germany, which I imagine was a very raw and strange time. Robert Faehmel is as predictable as I am in my behavior, only instead of spending every day reading, he plays billiards at the Prince Heinrich Hotel. His old schoolmate, Nettlinger, comes to see him, but is denied entry by the hotel concierge. Robert tells his story to the bellboy Hugo about his life, and his experiences resisting the growing Nazi influence during his childhood.

Boll's life was marked by tragedy from World War II, so now he's ready to kick some Nazi ass, and I'm here for it. I didn't love his heavy writing style, but I was intrigued enough by the lives of the characters to enjoy the complexity of the prose, even if it wasn't the most readable novel.

Welcome to the blog HB!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a film in 1965 entitled Not Reconciled.

UP NEXT: Memento Mori by Muriel Spark

535. Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring

Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring
Kenzaburo Oe
1958
Around 250 pages

It's been quite awhile since we've had a Japanese novel on this List, which is a shame because I'm quite a fan of Japanese culture. As a side note, I once went on a date with a guy who disdainfully declared that he was tired of women who think they are unique because they enjoy Murakami novels. So I guess there are a lot of us?

Anyway, 15 boys are sent from a reformatory to a rural village in Japan during World War II. They arrive to find dead animal carcasses and along with the villagers, realize the animals died from the plague. The villagers flee to a nearby village, abandoning the boys to their fate. 

Well, this is a fairly upsetting story, although given the setting and the title, you knew it wasn't going to be a cheerful affair. It's interesting that Lord of the Flies came out only a few years earlier, which was also a dark tale about a group of boys trying to survive on their own during World War II. I wouldn't be surprised if Oe was heavily influenced by William Golding's work. 

So this is a pretty short and brutal story, but none of the characters stood out to me. Once again, we had an unnamed narrator. Can we stop with that please?

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Ōe was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature.

He was also named to receive Japan's Order of Culture but he refused as it is bestowed upon by the Emperor, saying "I do not recognize any authority, any value, higher than democracy." Add him to the Bad Ass list. 

UP NEXT: Billiards at Half Past Nine by Heinrich Boll

534. Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's
Truman Capote
1958
Around 180 pages

Another crossover episode! Obviously, this Audrey Hepburn film is on the 1001 movie list. Holly Golightly was a Manic Pixie Dream Girl before we had a term for such a creature. This novella is significantly less rosy and upbeat than the Hollywood adaptation. And you don't have to endure Mickey Rooney portraying Holly's Japanese neighbor. 

Our unnamed narrator befriends his neighbor, Holly Golightly, who was what Capote dubbed "an American geisha." My generation would call her a sugar baby (wouldn't we youngsters?). It's implied that our narrator is gay, but in typical fashion, Hollywood transformed him into a white knight for our damsel in distress.

Capote's Holly is much more layered and real than Hepburn's glamorous portrayal. She's also racist, but I guess the film had that area covered already with Rooney. The novella was the perfect length. Just like Holly, the story is fleeting and hard to lock down. And even though the aesthetic ends up being much less shiny than its film counterpart, the novella still possesses its own unique and alluring charm, due in large part to Holly's personality.

Welcome to the party Truman!

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The novella prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation," adding that he "would not have changed two words in Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Capote envisioned Marilyn Monroe for the main role in the movie, but she was unavailable due to studio contracts.

UP NEXT: Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring by Kenzaburo Oe

533. The Leopard

The Leopard
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
1958
Around 330 pages

I have fond memories of this book as I read it while I was living in London. And yes, I know that it was silly to read an Italian novel in England. What can I say, I was young.

The majority of this novel is set during the period when Giuseppe Garibaldi led an army to invade and conquer Sicily for the Italian empire. The aristocratic Salina family is led by Don Fabrizio, who takes his role seriously by constantly cheating on his wife. He is fond of his nephew Tancredi, but is disturbed to discover that Tancredi has joined the Redshirts (Garibaldi's army). Fabrizio's daughter Concetta is in love with Tancredi, but he loves Angelica, the daughter of the shady mayor whose power rivals the Salinas. 

This is a very rough overview. For a historical novel, it is action-packed, which we know by now is not always the case for this genre. I thought this was an easy read, despite not knowing much about setting. Unlike some of the other novels on the List (ahem), our author doesn't assume his audience is a local well-versed in the who's who of 1860s. He provides enough context that I never felt lost, and the characters did an excellent job grounding the story with their very human emotions.

I enjoy stories that focus on an entire family during a period of political turmoil. This felt like the Italian War and Peace. Highly recommended.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won Italy's highest award for fiction, the Strega Prize.

The novel enraged the Communist Party, which is always fun.

UP NEXT: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

532. The Bitter Glass

The Bitter Glass
Eilis Dillon
1958 
Around 220 pages

And we are back in Ireland once again! This an obscure book that doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. I wasn't aware the author was a woman, Eilis not being a name you commonly hear in the States. Anyway, this was decent, even if I wasn't digging her choice of point of view.

The story takes place in 1922 Connemara, Ireland, which is smack dab in the middle of the Civil War. A group of young rich people take the train to an isolated farmhouse for vacay, right before the IRA destroy the bridge, making the return trip home rather difficult. I think this is a great set up for a slasher movie, but unfortunately, Dillon didn't choose to go in that direction with the story. Instead, a group of IRA soldiers arrive, and the people doing their best to ignore the war are forced to confront it head on. 

I admired the premise of this novel more than the execution. I didn't find myself caring about the characters very much. She switches point of views often, which stopped me from becoming too invested in anybody in particular.

Still, it depicted an intriguing time in Irish history and the pacing was good. 

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Dillon's work has been translated into 14 languages.

UP NEXT: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

531. Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
1958
Around 210 pages

It's nice to get out of Western Europe every once awhile, and especially nice to get out of Ireland (sorry lads, but you don't make it easy on me). And unlike some of our novels that take place in Africa, this story isn't about white men heroically trying to preserve an endangered species.

The story follows Okonkwo, an Igbo man and wrestling champion who is a member of the fictional Nigerian clan of Umuofia. He is toxic masculinity personified, so predictably, he has daddy issues. He becomes a leader in his village, but he's such a dick that things, you know, fall apart. Also, there are white Christian missionaries around, which is never good news.

I don't think Achebe should be criticized for writing in English. Let the man tell his story his way. This was an incredibly immersive read, you really get a feel for the villagers' way of life. Okonkwo is a classic tragic hero, with masculinity so fragile that it's no wonder he obtained a leadership position.

It's especially impressive given this was Achebe's debut novel. More Achebe please!

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Achebe explained his reason for writing in English rather than Igbo, saying "The novel form seems to go with the English language. There is a problem with the Igbo language. It suffers from a very serious inheritance which it received at the beginning of this century from the Anglican mission. They sent out a missionary by the name of Dennis. Archdeacon Dennis. He was a scholar. He had this notion that the Igbo language—which had very many different dialects—should somehow manufacture a uniform dialect that would be used in writing to avoid all these different dialects. Because the missionaries were powerful, what they wanted to do they did. This became the law. But the standard version cannot sing. There's nothing you can do with it to make it sing. It's heavy. It's wooden. It doesn't go anywhere."

Followed by a sequel in 1960.

UP NEXT: The Bitter Glass by Eilis Dillon

530. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Alan Sillitoe
1958
Around 215 pages

I was immediately sold on the premise of this novel. I love it when authors set challenges for themselves, like containing all the action in a short time frame. And it's good choice, as people are generally at their most interesting on their Saturday nights and Sunday mornings, present company excluded.

Arthur Seaton is a 22 year old worker at a bicycle factory. He has a few irons in the fire, including his coworker's wife, his coworker's wife's sister, and a young girl Doreen, who knows nothing about Arthur's proclivities. 

Weekends take on a special significance when you hate your job. You have to fit all your livin' into a very small window. I guess that is what Arthur is trying to do, but he is still a rather reprehensible character. The only way he can get revenge on the Man is by treating women horribly. 

I'm predisposed to like any novel written by somebody named Silly Toe, but I had a hard time connecting with the characters. Still, he is clearly a talented writing and I appreciated that his working class speak wasn't incomprehensible to anybody outside Nottingham.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted by Sillitoe into a 1960 film starring Albert Finney.

Adapted in 1964 was adapted by David Brett as a play, with Ian McKellen playing one of his first leading roles.

UP NEXT: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe