Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1985

Interesting that pom put his cut off date regarding a slump in the novel as an artform here because 1985 does seem quite a bit livelier than the years preceding it!

Some big novels here! Is anyone going to dare vote for Ender's Game? Maybe Blood Meridian will do well, I have tried to read that several times but cannot get into it at all.

😎

This is one of the toughest ones yet but I'm tempted to go with Auster for purely sentimental reasons, as I got into his work at precisely the right time in my life.

I've read eleven of these, my best count yet by far. Morris, Ackroyd or McCarthy for me.

Is anyone going to dare vote for Ender's Game?

Someone voted for The Mists Of Avalon!

Read 9 of the these. I think it'd be Jeanette Winterson, McCarthy or DeLillo.

Masters of Atlantis, the funniest novel I’ve ever read.

The true answer is probably Blood Meridian but who else is going to vote for Satantango? So László K gets my vote! I will shamefacedly admit to getting ten pages into Always Coming Home back in the day and giving up out of boredom, maybe I'd appreciate it more nowadays. Probably not.

It's her most preachy and worst imo.

choice of two biggies here... going for the one i've read more times.

(Days Between Stations / Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit)

that said, i can never remember what's in which eriksson novel. a lot of his images have stayed with me over the years but what's in which book is vague. i'm guessing this is the one with the LONG train journey but it could be the one with the sand, or the frozen narrowboat or the bottle or the film.

A good year for novels. The problem I have with choosing in years like this is the vast discrepancy in how long ago I've read some of these. I think the most recent one I've read is "City of Glass" and that was probably 10 years ago. Next most recent would be "Days Between Stations". And the rest even longer ago than that, with "Ender's Game" something I read in the '80s, and "White Noise", "Love in the Time of Cholera" and "Less than Zero" during the '90s. My tendency is to overrate the ones I've read more recently, since they are fresher in my mind.

Some other things I've read from this year that didn't make the cut: "Lake Wobegone Days" by Garrison Keillor, "Dayworld" by Philip Jose Farmer, "Galapagos" by Vonnegut.

Galapagos is the first Vonnegut I read, a pretty good one too.

I don't remember much about the Murakami, but I think I liked it. Only other options for me are Auster and Card.

Murakami's essential skeeviness about his female characters gets harder and harder for me to take, although how much his narrators are an extension of his own opinions is difficult to know.

Probably going to vote for that one but yeah feel the same way.

Satantango is a fine book, but I literally don't remember anything from it (except for a little bit of context) that isn't a scene or image from the movie. Big-screen excitement and glamour win again.

I've only read Handmaid's Tale and Perfume from the list. I own the Themerson and always wanted to get round to the Winterson but not actually read them. Not actually that excited by many others on the list despite everyone getting all up in a flurry about it being a good year (I guess this is the place to get in your convincing arguments for each book, though).

Agree that Galapagos is a good Vonnegut, though. I imagine the cuts are getting fairly brutal?

choice of two biggies here...

So many biggies on this list I truly don't know which two you mean!

When I was a teenager in the 80s The Handmaid's Tale and Ender's Game each blew my mind but only the former holds up and that's what I voted for.

But don't sleep on Illywhacker which is weird and great (and not even the best Carey) and which would win for me in most of these years

bunch of heavy hitters this year

might vote for my hero jeanette winterson

i actually really loved city of glass when i read it ten years ago and gave a thought toward voting for it

murakami sucks imo but hard boiled wonderland was the closest i came to enjoying him

I guess this is the place to get in your convincing arguments for each book, though

I was just noting the presence of lots of books that are often cited as the best or one of the best by a well-known author (though of this course this may not be unanimous), including for authors I've never read (like McCarthy and Atwood). I haven't read that much by Auster, but "City of Glass" seems a good distillation of his strengths, and is probably what I'll vote for.

20 something me would have voted for White Noise, but I think it’s Annie John

i have never been able to like Love in the Time of Cholera, even though One Hundred Years of Solitude is undeniable.

I must have missed the year with Norman Rush’s Mating, dammit!

Mating is '91 I think?

i have never been able to like Love in the Time of Cholera, even though One Hundred Years of Solitude is undeniable.

― horseshoe

Interesting. I didn't like 100 YoS but my friend tried to convince me that LitToC was better and I should still give it a try.

I'm struggling to choose between my two, I think they're both good books - I feel like Perfume is a much more sensual read with more interestingly-crafted prose, but that it says something pretty bad about my personality if I choose it over Handmaid's Tale. I mean, I guess my personality *is* pretty bad, but I don't want to admit to that.

I didn't like 100 YoS but my friend tried to convince me that LitToC was better and I should still give it a try.

Haven't read either since high school but my memory is that your reaction to 100YoS is a pretty good indication of whether the whole GGM project is right for you

As usual, lots of familiar names and titles, but have only read a few, will go for The Handmaid's Tale. which is still being told in the corridors ov memory and elsewhere (haven't seen the series, don't remember the movie)

Blood Meridian, over Handmaid's Tale, from a stacked field

Voted Masters of Atlantis, Portis, here. Perfect summation of the weird little cults that sprang up at the ragged fringes of US life before the internet turned them monstrous.

Blood Meridian over Perfume

Old Masters. His best.

is the latter real-autobiography version of Oranges worth reading?

* later

I don't know how much ground it re-covers (surely it would be interesting from that pov anyway) but I enjoyed it.

I just finished Blood Meridian, so that over White Noise over Love in the Time of Cholera over City of Glass.

I wonder what I will think in a few years.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Where'd my vote go? i am not good at computer

I was expecting The Handmaid's Tale to walk this, exacting descriptions of scalpings more popular on ilb though

Didn't know if I thought it was going to win but did think it'd get more than two votes - has the by all accounts terrible tv show hurt its rep?

I wonder who voted for A Maggot? It's certainly unlike most other novels though I would never read it again.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1986

Count me too as startled by low showing of Handmaid's Tale (of which I made up half the vote) -- at the time EVERYBODY read this, EVERYBODY praised it. My teen son read it and dug it last year so it's not like it doesn't still work.