How's The Fifth Empire? I loved Pelevin's The Helmet Of Horror, but I've never delved further...
Also, hell yes to most of your list of quintessential authors (though there's a bunch I haven't read yet). And I need to read more Jelinek. What the hell is up with Austria to give us both Jelinek and Haneke?
Re: Irish/Gaelic sagas, have you read Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds? If you like Joyce and sagas, you should love that one...
And re: African politics - read Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Wizard Of The Crow if you haven't already. Basically a fiercely marxist (though less card-carryingly Marxist than his earlier work) Bulgakov/Márquez-style satire of supposedly-post-colonial Africa - hilarious and furious at the same time.
"The Fifth Empire" is kinda mandatory for us: it is about vampires! ;-) I don't know any other books by him and only know Pelevin because me well-read and super worldly friend Julia brought some culture from Moscow to the province (and i mock her to no end that she fell in love this far away from her home in the middle of nowhere...).
No, i haven't read O'Brien at all: 20 years ago, i bought a book by O'Brien, just after i read Joyce. Natural, right? My then-girlfriend saw the book, snatched it - and promptly broke up with me. The length some people go to get their hands on a certain book...
So thanks for reminding me of O'Brien! Will seek out!
Sadly, i know next to nothing about African literature. What you write about that book sounds really great! So, i think it is time to remedy my ignorance. :)
For U.S. authors, I'd say James Baldwin is pretty much fundamental. When I taught U.S. Lit this past spring, my students universally adored him. Great list anyway :).
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Also, hell yes to most of your list of quintessential authors (though there's a bunch I haven't read yet). And I need to read more Jelinek. What the hell is up with Austria to give us both Jelinek and Haneke?
Re: Irish/Gaelic sagas, have you read Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds? If you like Joyce and sagas, you should love that one...
And re: African politics - read Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Wizard Of The Crow if you haven't already. Basically a fiercely marxist (though less card-carryingly Marxist than his earlier work) Bulgakov/Márquez-style satire of supposedly-post-colonial Africa - hilarious and furious at the same time.
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No, i haven't read O'Brien at all: 20 years ago, i bought a book by O'Brien, just after i read Joyce. Natural, right? My then-girlfriend saw the book, snatched it - and promptly broke up with me. The length some people go to get their hands on a certain book...
So thanks for reminding me of O'Brien! Will seek out!
Sadly, i know next to nothing about African literature. What you write about that book sounds really great! So, i think it is time to remedy my ignorance. :)
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Here's a list of the 100 greatest African books of the 20th century if you want a starting point. Some really great stuff on there.
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I think i will get my grabby hands on everything Pelevin has written - "5th Empire" is good.
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