588. Things: A Story of the Sixties

Things: A Story of the Sixties
Georges Perec
1965

Around 220 pages

Georges Perec is an experimental author, so his works always seem more like novelties than novels. In this story, Perec plays with tenses and language in ways that probably don't always translate from the original French.

Our main characters are Jerome and Sylvie, who are both market researchers. As Perec explains, nobody gets into market research because it's a lifelong passion. They struggle to make ends meet. I don't really know what happened in terms of plot. 

I found this to be a rather aimless story with a very abrupt ending. Not my thing. Much more Perec to come.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Won the Prix Renaudot in 1965.

UP NEXT: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

587. August is a Wicked Month

August is a Wicked Month
Edna O'Brien

1965

Around 170 pages

I hadn't yet clicked with an Edna O'Brien, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I greatly enjoyed this novel. Sees, sometimes you have to go on a few dates before you get that spark. 

Ellen is estranged from her husband, but finds joy in her seven-year-old son Mark. She decides to travel to Paris to have some sexual adventures. The reality of having sexual experiences with actual men though isn't quite as romantic as the fantasy. Apparently, Ellen's hair and eye color keeps changing...which is not great. I didn't notice that though during my read. Oh well. Flaubert couldn't get it straight either.

This is an odd book. I enjoyed the descriptions, even if the sex scenes were cloaked in strange metaphors. There's a really strange plot twist that comes out of nowhere, which I think is probably linked to O'Brien's own Catholic guilt. But I actually cared about where the story was going, and I wanted it to keep going after the end. How often does that happen?

Getting this one in under the August buzzer.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Banned in several jurisdictions in Ireland.

UP NEXT: Things: A Story of the Sixties by Georges Perec

586. God Bless You Mr. Rosewater

God Bless You Mr. Rosewater
Kurt Vonnegut
1965

Around 215 pages

God bless Kurt Vonnegut, we were really floundering there for a moment. Spoiler alert, I will be praising every Vonnegut on this List, because every one of them slays.

The novel's main focus is on Eliot Rosewater, the son of a wealthy senator. His father established the Rosewater Foundation to help their clan avoid paying taxes on their family estate. Eliot gets $3.5 million a year from the Foundation. After World War II, Eliot develops a social conscience and starts helping out the townsfolk. This sets into motion a scheme to get the money away from Eliot, by proving he's insane.

Because of the recurring characters, Vonnegut really has created his own universe. I love the resolution to this novel, and the social commentary was great. His humor is dark and biting. I can't get enough of this guy.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a stage musical with a book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken.

UP NEXT: August is a Wicked Month by Edna O'Brien

585. Everything That Rises Must Converge

Everything That Rises Must Converge
Flannery O'Connor
1965

Around 270 pages

I'm not going to lie to you, this is a tough time for us. We've got Pynchon on the horizon, and I believe Georges Perec is cooking up something weird down the pipeline. While ole Flann is not as bad as either of those bullies (yes, they bully me with their prose), her Southern Catholic stories are not my taste.

We get nine short stories here, and like many short story collections, it's a mixed bag. This was written near the end of Flannery's battle with lupus, so she's even more religious than usual. The stories deal with themes of spiritualism and race.

All the characters are so over the top, that I have a hard time connecting to them. If anybody expresses religious ambivalence, you know they are going to be struck down in some way. Extremists on either side usually eat it in her stories, in very dramatic ways. "The Enduring Chill" made me roll my eyes the hardest.

Not my thing.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

The title "Everything That Rises Must Converge" refers to a work by the French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin titled the "Omega Point."

UP NEXT: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

583. The Passion According to G.H.

The Passion According to G.H. 
Clarice Lispector
1964
Around 185 pages

This novel starts with Clarice Lispector's request that you only read her novel if your soul is already formed. What does that mean? Are we ever fully formed? I don't think is applies to me, because the idea that this is the finished product is too sad for me. I would never start a story this way, but I guess her style isn't meant to be inclusive.

G.H., a wealthy resident in a Rio de Janeiro penthouse, goes to clean the bedroom of the maid who just quit. She opens the wardrobe and kills a cockroach that scuttles out, which sends her into a bit of a tailspin. I guess that's understandable. If you thought there hasn't been enough cockroach vomit on this List, this is the course correction you've been waiting for.

Ick, this novel was gross. Lispector likely thought that people who focused on the disgusting elements of this story, rather than the mystical, were not worthy of reading her words. Not really my thing, but I did enjoy the revelation that G.H. was despised by the maid.

RATING: **--

Interesting Facts:

Shortly before her death, Lispector told a reporter that of all her books, G.H. was the one that "best corresponded to her demands as a writer."

UP NEXT: The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

584. The River Between

The River Between

Ngugi wa Thiong'o
1965

Around 155 pages

Who had female circumcision on their misery bingo card? The List has really put us through it lately. Vonnegut, give me strength.

Waiyaki's father believes his son is the savior of his village, and eagerly sends him to missionary school. The missionary school is controlled by the colonists, who are vehemently against the female circumcision practiced in Waiyaki's village. Children whose parents still support the tradition are expelled from the school, so Waiyaki builds his own school for those students.

Female genital mutilation is evil, but I don't want to root for the colonists either. So the entire story was very upsetting. I've just about had it with crazed relatives believing they or their family are the messiah. It's weird that it's happened enough that I can say that.

One of those important reads that are miserable to get through.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Part of the African Writers Series, a collection of books written by Africans. 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003.

UP NEXT: Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor

582. Sometimes a Great Notion

Sometimes a Great Notion
Ken Kesey
1964

Around 715 pages

Speaking of clunkers. I was not at all impressed by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, so I wasn't looking forward to 700+ more pages of Kesey. And a novel about logging strike? I'm already asleep. I only want to read about labor disputes if Emile Zola is at the helm.

The novel takes place in the lame Wakonda with a "O," which is located on the Oregon coast. The union loggers go on strike, but the hard headed Stamper family aren't known for their flexibility and don't support the strikers. Which I guess is why we need 715 pages.

So this was just kind of dull, the Stampers are an unlikable bunch, and I was unpleasantly reminded of Faulkner. Kesey doesn't do female characters well, and the action doesn't pick up until the very end.

In conclusion, this novel will make you want to saw logs. I'm here all week folks.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Film adaptation directed and starred Paul Newman.

UP NEXT: The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector

581. Come Back, Dr. Caligari

Come Back Dr. Caligari
Donald Barthelme
1964

Around 185 pages

Another collection of short stories, but I actually find postmodernism much easier to swallow this way. 

Here we get fourteen short stories, each featuring absurd situations and characters. A few of these stories really stand out, others not so much. I really do think with absurdism, you have to keep it short and sweet. That's why The Nose and A Modest Proposal slap so hard. Barthelme does a good job with this format, even if it was a little uneven.

Just kind of meh, but we've had so many clunkers lately, I'll take it.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Barthelme was married four times.

UP NEXT: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

580. Albert Angelo

Albert Angelo
B.S. Johnson
1964
Around 180 pages

B.S. are rather ominous initials. Even more damning is Samuel Beckett's praise on the cover of my edition ("A most gifted writer"). So I knew things were going to get weird.

Albert Angelo is a substitute teacher who wants to be an architect and is still in love with his ex girlfriend Jenny. The style would have made Joyce proud, and apparently the physical copies of this book have holes cut into the pages so you glimpse events ahead of the story (my copy was online). Do talented storytellers really have to resort to gimmicks to stand out? 

So I guess this was an experiment, and a novelty, but doesn't have much lasting power.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

The day before his suicide he had told his agent: "I shall be much more famous once I'm dead."

UP NEXT: Come Back Dr. Caligari by Donald Barthelme

579. Arrow of God

Arrow of God
Chinua Achebe
1964

Around 290 pages

This is the third part of Chinua Achebe's African Trilogy, and for whatever reason, The Powers That Be excluded the second novel, No Longer at Ease. I trust that the second segment was the weakest part of the trilogy, although I wish the Architects showed similar discretion with cutting out white authors' superfluous works.

We are back with the Igbo people, this time with Ezeulu, who is the chief priest of the god Ulu. The story begins with Ezeulu's conflict with a nearby village, but this is brought to an abrupt halt when T.K. Winterbottom (I might steal that as a pen name), a British overseer, steps in. Just like Things Fall Apart, the plot deals with the downfall of a male leader at the hands of the colonists.

Authors tend to write the same book over and over again, and this seems to be the case here. Luckily Achebe has a lot to work with, and plenty of interesting material on the Igbo culture. I enjoyed Ezeulu as a protagonist more than Okonkwo, even if both characters get essentially the same treatment.

Too bad Achebe is only on this List twice.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

UP NEXT: Albert Angelo by B.S. Johnson

578. The Ravishing of Lol Stein

The Ravishing of Lol V. Stein
Marguerite Duras
1964
Around 180 pages

Well, this is certainly a more intriguing title than what we got with Herzog, or simply the letter V. This wasn't fantastic, but it still made for a refreshing change of pace.

Lol Stein is engaged at the age of 19 to Michael Richardson (no, not that Michael Richardson). He ends up leaving her for an older woman, proving that the name is cursed with douchebaggery. She bounces back with a musician and has three kids, but she's not exactly over it, and returns to her hometown.

I was hoping there would be a bit more ravishing in this. I thought the point of view was intriguing, but the style was a bit mystical and detached for my taste, particularly when you are dealing with such emotional characters. 

We won't have another female author for awhile, so enjoy this while you can!

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Samuel Beckett regarded first hearing the radio play "The Square" as a significant moment in his life.

UP NEXT: Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

577. Herzog

Herzog
Saul Bellow
1964
Around 370 pages

So here's another author that I am not too fond of, but at least it's not Pynchon. Although like Pynchon, his novels are too long and he's overrepresented on this List.

Our protagonist is Moses Herzog, who is in the midst of a midlife crisis after divorcing his second wife. He is estranged from his two children and is currently in a relationship with Ramona, who he is reluctant to commit to. Much of the novel is spent with Herzog mentally writing letters he never sends, which is actually a technique I really like.

Evelyn Waugh has spoiled me, and if a man isn't going to handle his midlife crisis by running into the Brazilian jungle, I'm really not interested. I don't think Saul Bellow has a lot of charm, and I find his writing boring. Hopefully we will get out of this rut soon. 

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

In 2005, Time magazine named it one of the 100 best novels in the English language since Time's founding in 1923.

UP NEXT: The Ravishing of Lol V. Stein by Marguerite Duras

576. V.

V.

Thomas Pynchon
1963
Around 550 pages

My old nemesis. I knew the day would come when Pynchon joined the List. I just wished I would be dead by then. Oh well, there's still hope. We have five more of these to go.

V. describes the exploits of a discharged Navy sailor named Benny Profane. He interacts with the Whole Sick Crew, which is an assortment of bohemians and other people I'll be forced to watch Cats with in hell. I guess the main narrative is Herbert Stencil trying to locate the mysterious entity known as V. 

Pynchon always bores me into a stupor so I always have a hard time following the plot. Bloated with really unlikable characters and I hate his style.  

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

The line "Yesterday's headlines blown by the wind" in Radiohead's "Scatterbrain" was inspired by a passage from the novel.

V for Vendetta includes the title character V quoting and reading from Pynchon's book.

UP NEXT: Herzog by Saul Bellow

575. Cat's Cradle

Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut
1963
Around 180 pages

I find it harder to write about books I love than books I hate. It's so much easier to bitch about Anthony Burgess than put into my words my deep feelings for Vonnegut. This is why I would never want to write my own wedding vows, I would turn it into a roast.

Our narrator Jonah is a writer who frames the story as a flashback. In the mid-20th century, the plot occurs at a time when he was writing a book called The Day the World Ended about what people were doing on the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The novel is also interspersed with passages from an odd religious scripture known as The Books of Bokonon.

Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors, and his dark humor is a welcome addition on this List, which has skewed toward scatological lately. Finally, we are talking about Hiroshima, which hasn't really been meaningfully addressed yet in fiction, at least if this List is any indication. 

This is a five star novel, but amazingly, it's still not my favorite Vonnegut. He's just that good.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Vonnegut claimed that his books "are essentially mosaics made up of a whole bunch of tiny little chips and each chip is a joke."

Challenged in New Hampshire and Ohio.

After turning down his original thesis in 1947, the University of Chicago awarded Vonnegut his master's degree in anthropology in 1971 for Cat's Cradle.

UP NEXT: V. by Thomas Pynchon

574. The Graduate

The Graduate
Charles Webb
1963
Around 270 pages

And speaking of male fantasies, now we have Mrs. Robinson. This wasn't a bad novel, but it is one of the rare examples of a movie improving upon the book adaptation. I mean, without the Simon and Garfunkel song, what's the point?

We all know the story and the leg, and we can all probably misquote Benjamin saying "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?" Last entry, we had "the naked woman in a waterfall" scenario, now we have the "hot mom of girlfriend throwing herself at you." I think slutty nurse is next.

It is a very weird time after you graduate college, even if you don't have a total fox trying to get you into bed. Webb does a good job capturing that listless and uncertain energy, but the movie was ultimately more effective at transforming this premise into art.

The sixties were a weird time.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Webb wrote this shortly after graduating college.

Webb wrote a sequel 40 years later, which was poorly received.

UP NEXT: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

573. Manon des Sources

Manon des Sources
Marcel Pagnol
1962

Around 285 pages

We watched the movie adaptation of this in my high school French class, which was actually much more educational than our previous films, which included Passport to Paris and Ratatouille. Still, it's an odd choice to show teenagers who are already hormonally imploding.

Ugolin Soubeyran sees Manon bathing nude in the mountains, so he becomes a creepy stalker forever. Manon is just trying to live her best life off the land, and of course, she has to deal with Ugolin's obsession which is even grosser considering Ugolin's role in her father's death.

Men probably fantasize about stumbling upon a beautiful woman standing naked under a waterfall. Manon was definitely created by a man, and that fact is always apparent. I don't really belong in the male fantasyland, so I wasn't comfortable here.

Felt like a French Thomas Hardy novel, but I prefer Hardy.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Pagnol directed the movie adaptation.

UP NEXT: The Graduate by Charles Webb

572. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
John le Carre
1963

Around 240 pages

Like many dorks, I enjoy a good spy novel. This is what I meant by a lighter novel, by the way, great Powers That Be. It doesn't have to be about sunshine and fluffy creatures, but we can at least have some fun and excitement along the way.

This novel is actually a sequel to his previous novels, Call for the Dead and A Murder of Quality, and no, my brain didn't short circuit because I hadn't read those books first. I'm complicated. Anyway, we get our typical convoluted spy plot, featuring George Smiley who is pretty much the anti-James Bond. 

For the most part, this is pretty standard fare, with some notable exceptions. Le Carre doesn't present Western Intelligence as the good guys protecting the moon from being blown up by the Soviets. I enjoyed this, and I love Smiley. It's fun to watch characters underestimate him.

This was a refreshing change of pace, now I'm ready to be depressed again.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Selected as one of the All-Time 100 Novels by Time magazine.

Le Carre was in part inspired by reading the translated novel The Darkroom of Damocles by Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans, who suspected plagiarism.

UP NEXT: Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol

571. The Girls of Slender Means

The Girl of Slender Means
Muriel Spark
1963
Around 180 pages

Thank, Muriel, for the welcome interruption. Yes, 1963 has been a tough year. No, you're lovely!

Ahem, anyway, I really needed this. This novel concerns the fictitious May of Teck Club, which was established "for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London." Quite a title.  Present day, Jane Wright, a former resident of the club, wants to do a story on the recent death of Nicholas Farringdon, an anarchist recently killed in Haiti. We get flashbacks to the 1945, when Farringdon was a frequent visitor of the Club.

I would love to see a television series that focused on these ladies during their residency. I still like the story we got though, Spark is very efficient with her use of language. I'm glad she gets her fair share of entries on the List.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

In 2022, it was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

UP NEXT: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre

570. Inside Mr. Enderby

Inside Mr. Enderby
Anthony Burgess
1963
Around 250 pages

Ugh, this is not what I meant when I requested a lighter novel. I don't like spending time with characters when they are in the bathroom. Bodily functions are really not my sense of humor. At least we can say goodbye to Burgess, as he exits in disgrace.

Mr Enderby is a poet who composes his works on the toilet. And yeah, there are sound effects. I guess I should also mention that the story is rather half-heartedly framed as a field trip for children from the future. Anyway, Mr Enderby's apartment is a mess and he can't cook, so naturally everybody and their mother says he should get married. I have news Mr Enderby, I don't know how to properly chop garlic either. He marries Vesta Bainbridge, but can't consummate the marriage because he's seen too much porn to get an erection in real life.

So I guess Mr Enderby makes for a very realistic man, but I've never felt that fiction needs the level of realism where we follow our characters' digestive cycles. I guess it was supposed to be comical, but again, that's not my humor. I would rather read Oscar Wilde's  bitchy comments. Now that's comedy!

I'll give it two stars because I did enjoy the cooking scene, which was very relatable to me. 

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Used the pen name Joseph Kell.

UP NEXT: The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

569. The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath
1963

Around 300 pages

We've been reading a lot of novels lately about mental hospitals, I guess everybody from the Kennedys downward were pushing people into these institutions and strapping them down. There are many sad boy novels on the List, so it's nice to shake it up with a sad girl novel. And this is the ultimate female depression novel. Virginia Woolf would have been proud.

In 1953, Esther Greenwood is a 19 year old who recently earned a summer internship at the Ladies Day Magazine in New York City. She doesn't feel any kind of stimulation from her life, or the city, which New Yorkers would have you believe is impossible. She also feels trapped by the conventions imposed on women at the time, and fears getting pregnant. This is a very relatable state of being as a woman, even if you're as depressed as Esther.

Sylvia Plath committed suicide shortly after this novel, so I don't think many people have experienced this novel without that event coloring their view of the story. It's painful to know somebody suffered so much and didn't get the help they needed. Oof, these have been some heavy reads lately. We need some British guy with a silly hat in here to lighten the mood.

Plath really had talent, and her story is tragic. Definitely an essential novel, which is more uplifting than you might think, if you ignore the context.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Early working titles of the novel included Diary of a Suicide and The Girl in the Mirror.

On November 5, 2019, the BBC News listed The Bell Jar on its list of the 100 most inspiring novels.

UP NEXT: Inside Mr. Enderby by Anthony Burgess

568. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
1962
Around 185 pages

This is a good novel to keep on hand when you are having a bad day, as a reminder that things could always be worse. It's like the adult version of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Day. 

The plot of this novel is pretty much explained in the title. We follow Ivan through a day in a Gulag, where he has been sentenced to serve for ten years. The prisoners are mostly just trying to get through the day, and there are small acts of kindness that make the experience slightly less nightmarish. Very slightly.

I always love stories that are confined to a single day. Solzhenitsyn had personal experience to draw from, so he does an excellent job portraying the brutal conditions of a Soviet labor camp. Obviously this is a pretty tough read, but it's worth it.

For a relatively short novel, he really captures how time would grind to a complete halt if you were stuck in this world. 

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The labor camp featured in the book was one that Solzhenitsyn had served some time at, and was located in Karaganda in northern Kazakhstan.

Over 95,000 copies sold.

UP NEXT: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

567. The Collector

The Collector
John Fowles
1963
Around 285 pages

These last three novels on this List have provided a thorough guide to men who want to hurt women. I'm ready for a change, even if the next novel takes place in a Soviet labor camp.

Frederick Clegg collects butterflies and can't talk to women. He becomes obsessed with Miranda Grey, an art student, and kidnaps her by drugging her with chloroform. He holds her in his basement at his isolated house in Sussex.

I just don't need to read these kind of stories that feature every woman's worst nightmare, unless the character ends up getting set on fire by the end. And even then, I think I'm good. I do think John Fowles is a good writer, as this was a very readable novel. But I don't need this imagery in my head, thank you very much. 

It's hard enough to fall asleep without reading stories like this. Next.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Serial killers, spree killers, kidnappers, and other criminals have claimed that The Collector was the basis, the inspiration, or the justification for their crimes. That's quite a legacy you've built, Fowles.

UP NEXT: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

566. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey

1962
Around 320 pages

Our tour of misogyny continues with One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. I was ambivalent about the movie. It's not really my thing, but I have sexually confused feelings about young Jack Nicholson, so it was fine. But the book is even uglier than the movie, and I have no desire to revisit this story ever again.

The novel is narrated by "Chief" Bromden, a giant Native American patient of a mental hospital, who pretends to be deaf and mute so everybody will leave him alone. Randle McMurphy is a rebellious criminal who faked insanity so he didn't have to serve his sentence at a work farm. Randle is constantly waging war on Nurse Ratched who is hellbent on controlling the ward.

Nurse Ratched could be a really good villain, but I feel like the patients' perception of her is so rooted in misogyny, that it's hard for me to enjoy rooting against her character. I also found the story rather predictable, which is probably because so many other novels that take place in mental hospitals have borrowed from this plot.

I guess this is a classic, but honestly it's skippable.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Time magazine included the novel in its "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005" list.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of America's most challenged and banned novels.

UP NEXT: The Collector by John Fowles

565. A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess
1962
Around 175 pages

I found the movie adaptation absolutely revolting when the 1001 Movie List strapped me down and made me watch it. I knew the book would likely be just as disturbing. We are entering a hat trick of novels concerning violence against women, so let's just get through this.

Our teenaged protagonist Alex DeLarge is a violent sociopath, who happens to enjoy Beethoven. I guess this is supposed to hint at him being deep, I'm not really sure. He commits horrific acts after drinking drug laced milk with his band of thugs, which are called "droogs." And that's honestly the one point I will give this novel. His technique of inventing slang keeps the novel fresh, and I always appreciate it when authors can create their own dialect. Anyway, when the law finally catches up to him, he is subjected to behavior modification therapy called the Ludovico Technique, designed to make him feel nauseous at the thought of violence.

I guess Burgess was addressing a very particular time when England was frightened of its own youth culture. Rightfully so, I guess, 60s youth are scary. It was a brutal read and it creeps me out to think of how many young men connected with Alex. Ick.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Written in three weeks.

Burgess stated that the novel's inspiration was his first wife Lynne's beating by a gang of drunk American servicemen stationed in England during World War II. She then miscarried.

UP NEXT: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

564. Pale Fire

Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov
1962
Around 315 pages

Nabokov is so strange with his plots that it was only a matter of time before things got weird with his structure too. This was definitely not my cup of tea, but it didn't shake my belief that Nabokov is a genius, so that's something.

Pale Fire is presented as a 999 line poem penned by John Slade, with a foreword, commentary, and index written by Slade's neighbor and colleague Charles Kinbote. Charles Kinbote clearly isn't playing with a full deck, and thinks he is the exiled King Charles.

So we have two very unreliable narrators, and a kind of choose your own adventure style for reading. You can follow the annotations as you go along, or save them for after an initial read through of the poem. I can't ignore a footnote, so I kept halting the flow to follow Charles' part. And while I recognize this disjointedness is intentional, I think it does take a toll on the rhythm, which I think is crucial for enjoying poetry. 

An interesting experiment, but I didn't really connect with the text or the characters. 

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

In Blade Runner 2049, the device performing a "Post-Trauma Baseline Test" on Ryan Gosling's character, "K", quotes lines 703–707 of the poem. The other List made me watch that movie, which I didn't like either.

UP NEXT: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

563. The Drowned World

The Drowned World
J.G. Ballard
1962
Around 160 pages

We have seven Ballard novels on this List, so let's get cracking. Writers are really feeling apocalyptic lately. I guess the paranoia will only increase as we move through the sixties.

It's the mid 22nd century, and the planet is almost completely uninhabitable due to solar radiation. Humans have fled to the poles to survive the extreme temperatures. In 2145, Dr. Robert Kerans is part of a scientific expedition to a lagoon that was once London. And while I was hoping the group would be attacked by dinosaurs, I had to settle for weird dreams and pirates.

With a premise like this, I expected the story to be slightly more exciting but Ballard is still finding his footing, as this is only his second novel. Ballard sets up an all too believable world, and seems to be one of the first dystopian novels to tackle climate-related apocalypses. 

A solid first entry for our guest star, who will soon return as a series regular.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

In 2010, Time Magazine named The Drowned World one of the top 10 best post-apocalyptic books.

UP NEXT: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov