Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1986

I have only read 'It' but will not be voting for it. Weird year.

I've read two of these, and of those it's Ishiguro. Yeah a strange year, compared to the riches of 1985 it seems a bit of a lull.

'It' is a pretty incredible mix of supernatural and cosmic and quotidian horror, the last two of which the recent film completely failed to capture. The sense is that the horror is not just some murderous monster - albeit an incredibly powerful and scary one - but that it subtly infects the entire town, exaggerating to great effect the normal fears kids might have of cops or authoritarian parents or school bullies and making it - amongst other things - a very powerful portrait of growing up an underdog.

I read Howl's Moving Castle recently, there's a lot that didn't make it into the film but Howl is a bit of a dick and I prefer the film's more sympathetic version and simplified story - those who read the book first may disagree. Ishiguro the only other one I've read.

extinction

i never reveal my votes in these threads but here i will say i'm a strong Stone Raft partisan

I haven't read any of these. Write-in vote for Updike's "Roger's Version", I guess.

The Passport is such a lame title compared to Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt ('Man is a great pheasant in the world'), which I assume already sounds odd to German speakers who are unfamiliar with Romanian ('fazan' refers to a chump in addition to the bird itself). Anyway, that one.

I have only read 'It' but will not be voting for it. Weird year.

― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length)

Same. I had a brief look to see if anything else I'd read had been cut, and I could only spot The Bridge by Iain Banks, which I don't really remember as being a standout one of his. Did prompt me to take a look back at '84 though and was surprised to see that The Wasp Factory got cut from that list!

I would have voted for The Wasp Factory, very surprised that didn't make the cut.

the reason I can't vote for 'It' is the uh "sex scene" or whatever you call it, an unbelievable thing to be lurking on normal people's bookshelves

yeah The Bridge was probably his most serious of those first few non-M novels. it's well regarded.

might've voted Wasp Factory over Neuromancer. tough call though.

(ha, just checked to see if my copy of the bridge is signed (wasp factory is!) and it's not but there was a postcard of the forth bridge tucked inside along with a train ticket)

Blue Eyes, Black Hair by Marguerite Duras

Didn't even know about this one.

Extinction is all I've read.

The Bridge was Banks's own favourite. It's his experimental-ish novel, not a million miles from Anna Kavan's Ice, iirc, if that had a 'he woke up and it was all a dream' ending. I jest, sort of. But yes we could do with some Banks in these.

Huh, maybe I'd have to revisit it, I don't have a very strong memory of it but that sounds good! I wouldn't have voted for The Wasp Factory, mostly b/c the Paviç from that year is so good, but also because the way it treats its topic might be a lot less palatable to me now than it was as a teen.

i've just bought a copy (WF) for a friend's teenage daughter so it'll be interesting to see what she thinks (although i doubt i will ever find out tbh). it's on a lot of YA reading lists i noticed.

A lot I like, nothing I love.

It was my favourite book growing up but yeah, that sex scene. I like The Sportswriter so will go for that.

nádas

Haven’t read that one but met one of the translators.

surprised ledge hasn't read the second part of the neuromancer trilogy (although it's not great, never liked the moved away from the space rastas, and the second trilogy is much better)

I wasn't exactly ignorant but only vaguely aware that neuromancer was a trilogy - was never hugely taken by the original, for a - 'the' - cyberpunk novel i thought there was too much conventional action and not enough cyber.

I listened to Neuromancer as an audio book, read by Gibson himself, and found it confusing but the background roots reggae was welcome.

Re: Banks, both those novels were in my lists before I had to whittle them down to 50, and in both cases they got cut because wikipedia didn't give much indication of how well regarded they are.

I think Gibson's a little embarrassed by the space rastas nowadays, I quite like them I must admit

The Sportswriter is an odd book. [SPOILERS I GUESS] The last few chapters, where the narrator meets a younger woman and embarks on an affair with her, is painted as some sort of triumph for him but just comes as super-bleak and spiritually empty given what's come before. Kind of like, 'life sucks but hey I met this new girl so it's all good now'.

If I thought Ford intended it to be read as such (in an unreliable narrator way) I'd be impressed but I think it's unintentional.

I think Bascombe would consider it a triumph of sorts, albeit he's adrift enough not to know what he wants. I don't think the governing intelligence of the book would judge it a win though - especially given what comes in the next two books.

Re: Banks, both those novels were in my lists before I had to whittle them down to 50, and in both cases they got cut because wikipedia didn't give much indication of how well regarded they are.

― Daniel_Rf

I know you're doing your best on your own, no insult to your list-making intended. I'm not sure which of his sci-fi books as Iain M. Banks should be included, if any, but I'd say of his non-SF works you should probably at least include The Crow Road in '92. I might not vote for it but I'd guess at it being #2 to The Wasp Factory in terms of Banks notability.

Also I probably did know he was dead but I'd forgotten that fact and just got all sad.

How well The Wasp Factory is regarded is an interesting question as my copy included several damningly bad reviews accusing Banks of everything from moral degeneracy to being a shock-value huckster, actually printed at the front of the book.

O shit, yeah, I remember that! I was impressed by the chutzpah of putting them in.

Also I probably did know he was dead but I'd forgotten that fact and just got all sad.

I remember Alan Moore in an interview saying that his main reaction to the death of Thatcher was that Banks, who had been diagnosed by then, had managed to outlive her and that there was some joy to be wrung from that.

I'm not sure which of his sci-fi books as Iain M. Banks should be included, if any

First three or four Culture books are definitely the best imo. Haven't read (the non-Culture) Feersum Endjinn though, which I know a lot of people rep for.

I've not read Banks in about 20 years. Curious to know how it'd hold up. From memory, I'd certainly rep for Feersum Endjinn. Consider Phlebas, too.

Can you include The Medusa Frequency by Russell Hoban in the list for 1987, please?

The first four culture novels (can't lose excession) & feersum enjinn & against a dark background definitely all top tier banks.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Will do, Lily!

Voting for It, for me easily the peak of the king project - bleak and disturbing and sordid, its greatness I think inseparable from its most ill-judged elements (ie yes that scene, but also the general misogyny & homophobia, the bloat, the 2d characterisation); maybe you have to encounter it at the age of the young protagonists, as I did

Starting to get some Vintage Contemporaries on the list. Interesting how some big hitters are missing from these lists (Ellis, McInerney, Bobbie Ann Mason, etc.).

The Sportswriter, and the Frank Bascombe novels, are my least favorite Ford, though maybe I should try again. Barthelme’s Paradise is a fun, hard-earned wisp.

i'm sure i've read and enjoyed books by worse people, but ford is such a legendary asshole that i've never been tempted to try.

(also the sportswriter at least *sounds* like more updike/roth 'aging writer rages that no one wants to fuck him anymore' crap)

Voting for It, for me easily the peak of the king project - bleak and disturbing and sordid, its greatness I think inseparable from its most ill-judged elements (ie yes that scene, but also the general misogyny & homophobia, the bloat, the 2d characterisation); maybe you have to encounter it at the age of the young protagonists, as I did

I could have written this exact post but it would have been about The Stand

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

did not see that coming but then again there's not a book here that wouldn't have felt like a surprise win

what? this had the most obvious winner out of all these polls afaict

Poor Maryse Condé. I would have voted for you, had I seen the poll in time.

Not more obvious than Ulysses tbf, map.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1987

I didn't see It coming either, but I have no idea which Stephen King novels are considered his best.

Would've voted for "Innocence" if it had been on the list. Human Voices/At Freddies/Innocence/Beginning of Spring is PF's imperial phase for me.

Wasn’t Innocence on there for another year already?