Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1991

VOTE SARAMAGO

I know militant atheism is pretty boring now but dude was a total badass for launching this bomb into a still very militantly catholic Portuguese society, garnering him condemnation from the church and intervention from the Portuguese government, which had the book removed from the shortlist for a European literary prize. Also it's beautifully written.

Yoruba Girl Dancing is also very good, a story of a Nigerian teen who moves to the UK; really thought it had been written decades earlier. One thing that stuck with me is the description of British kids having to eat unappetizing sludge called porridge, and this being consumed regardless of the heat.

Tous les matins du monde by Pascal Quignard aka one of the greatest living writers.

Haha, the English Wikipedia article on Quignard only consists of three paragraphs and the longest mostly discusses the film adaptation. Then again, I have no idea whether his style works in translation, so wedded it is to the French language and its etymological sedimentation.

Could be the year I've read the least of since this series began - have only read American Psycho and Time's Arrow and wouldn't particularly want to stan for either

I've only read "Mao II", and that was quite a while ago.

I've only read The Van, and while I actually liked it a lot I'm guessing it probably wasn't the best book of the year.

famished road is sitting there, unfinished, on the bookshelf 25 or more years after i started it, sorry ben

(july 1994 it says inside, so just over 27 years).

time's arrow and gen x are the only others i've read.

the subtext of this poll is the chad world literature reader vs the virgin anglo only reader

Regeneration > Gen X / Wise Children / American Psycho. Don't remember much about Gen X or Wise Children, Regeneration is great stuff though. I'm better at reading foreign fiction these days but these polls suggest I have some way to go, Saramago's near the top of my to-read list now - xp lol.

This is the year of books I dug when I was in college and remember nothing about now (Famished Road, Gen X, Mao II, Am Psych)

Gigachad only reads novels written in undecryptable cipher, obv.

This list pitched a no-hitter on me.

only read five, am psycho the funniest of them, times arrow the best sentences.

Gringos is not the best Portis but is still great.

Yeah Gringos is very fun, it got my vote

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I luv u drunk Karl

Never read Gringos but I imagine it’s got to be better than Masters of Atlantis.

Nothing is better than Masters of Atlantis except maybe Dog of the South.

!

I think the '90s are mostly going to be me being unenthusiastic about middlebrow pap. I've read a few but nothing I'd call good.

Time's Arrow - maybe the only Amis that I feel like I'd still be into if I re-read again, as I am a sucker for a formal conceit, but eh, it was an awfully long time ago I read this. And as I said in the other thread, fuck Amis.

American Psycho - the way in which the writing's slick glossiness reflects the vapid and hollow milieu it sets itself in is v apt and well done. Everything else, eh. Also fuck Ellis.

Regeneration - might have enjoyed this more if I hadn't been forced to study it in class, but my recollections of this are entirely that it was an excruciatingly boring read. As far as I'm aware Barker isn't a hugely terrible person, though, so there is that in its favour.

damn what a shitty year lmao

I recall the kerfuffle over the Amis book having cribbed its conceit from all three of Vonnegut, Dick and Ballard, but now since a proper writer was doing it all was well. Shit, that was 30 years ago? *checks mirror*

Eh, I don't feel like time-slippage/backwards story-telling needs to be a proprietary thing. Vonnegut, Dick and Ballard are all much better writers than Amis, though, and I can just imagine the wankery of that discourse about "proper writers".

I loved Pat Barker's WWI novels, and he gets the queer nuances right, sez this queer who was neither British nor alive in 1916.

(Pat Barker is a lady, which i didn't realise until recently, because wwi war poets struck me as a man's subject)

that said, a Google image search makes her look like two different people. but both of them are female.

here's where I admit to enjoying Generation X

i think i'd've enjoyed it more if i hadn't read microserfs first

It’s either Time’s Arrow or Jernigan for me, I guess.

Heard of Quignard and quite like to read him and not sure why I've not come round -- see there is quite a lot in translation.

I've only read the Tabucchi. Like but won't vote for it. Like Emily finding this period a tad barren.

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

Like fuck is American Psycho better than the Saramago, grumble grumble.

I recall the kerfuffle over the Amis book having cribbed its conceit from all three of Vonnegut, Dick and Ballard, but now since a proper writer was doing it all was well.

I thought Ballard and, to a lesser extent, Vonnegut were always seen as Proper Writers?

I thought I’d voted for sure. :(

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1992

Missed this on a camping trip, write-in for The Gold Bug Variations.