Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1993

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
Parable Of The Sower by Octavia Butler 5
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh 4
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx 2
Arc d'X by Steve Erickson 2
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg 2
To Live by Yu Hua 1
Complicity by Iain Banks 1
The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte 1
The Land Of Green Plums by Herta Muller 1
The Haunted Mask by R.L. Stine 1
Zennor In Darkness by Helen Dunmore 1
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides 1
Vurt by Jeff Noon 1
Deep River by Shūsaku Endō 0
Black Blossom by Boban Knežević 0
Swallowing Geography by Deborah Levy 0
Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman 0
Paddy Clarcke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle 0
Ghosts by John Banville 0
Summer Of Dead Dreams by Harry Thürk 0
Through A Glass, Darkly by Jostein Gaarder 0
The Life Of Insects by Victor Pelevin 0
The Herbivorous Family by Mo Yan 0
Ocean Sea by Alessandro Baricco 0
People Of The Pear Tree by Rex Shelley 0
Shades by Marguerite Poland 0
Slowness by Milan Kundera 0
So Far From God by Ana Castillo 0
The Sound Of Fishsteps by Buket Uzuner 0
The Rock Of Tanios by Amin Maalouf 0
Borderliners by Peter Høeg 0
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines 0
Just This Once by a Macintosh IIcx computer named "Hal" 0
Japanese By Spring by Ishmael Reed 0
A Grave Talent by Laurie R. King 0
Foxfire: Confessions Of A Girl Gang by Joyce Carol Oates 0
The Dissolution Of Nicholas Dee by Matthew Stadler 0
The Ties That Bind by Vanessa Duriès 0
The Smell Of Apples by Mark Behr 0
Tim And Pete by James Robert Baker 0
Youth In Revolt by C.D. Payne 0
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood 0
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth 0
The Sculptress by Minette Walters 0
The Night Manager by John Le Carré 0
The Dyke And The Dybbuk by Ellen Galford 0
Crossing The River by Caryl Philips 0
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks 0
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf 0
La Maravilla by Alfredo Véa Jr. 0


Daniel_Rf, Friday, 13 August 2021 10:53 (three years ago)

Also released this year:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/Peter_Gethers_-_A_Cat_Abroad.jpeg

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 13 August 2021 11:01 (three years ago)

couple more Trade Paperback Direct books in here that i read: virgin suicides, paddy clarke

vurt was good but suffered from having a scrappy doo character (or two) in there changing the whole tone.

Complicity was possibly the last non-M banks that i read (oh, not true). i think a couple may've fallen through the gaps (walking on glass (85), bridge (86), espedair street (87), player of games(88), canal dreams(89)). not sure i'd've voted for any of those though, maybe Player.

koogs, Friday, 13 August 2021 11:06 (three years ago)

stone butch blues. life-changing

STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 13 August 2021 12:47 (three years ago)

shouts out also to vurt and parable of the sower

STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 13 August 2021 12:48 (three years ago)

Tie between Shipping News and A Cat Abroad

subpoena colada (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 13 August 2021 14:25 (three years ago)

I've only read "Parable of the Sower", "Life of Insects", and, of books not listed, "My Idea of Fun" by Will Self. In my recollection, all three are rather resigned about the possibilities of human nature in that early '90s way, though "Parable" is perhaps the least cynical.

o. nate, Friday, 13 August 2021 14:48 (three years ago)

Vurt. I bought the hardcover when it came out solely because it caught my eye in a Waldenbooks and then I read the back cover. It's flawed but I've always loved it.

Captain Beefart (PBKR), Friday, 13 August 2021 16:54 (three years ago)

I feel more down on the '90s than the years where I had read almost none of the books. I've read the Welsh, Faulks and Banks (and the Self o nate mentioned). Banks the best of those, but I wish I'd read more interesting books from the era.

emil.y, Friday, 13 August 2021 17:17 (three years ago)

Voted for the Yu Hua, simple and perfect.

But I know I really liked "Shipping News" and "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" at the time -- it's just that I can't remember one thing about them. Except that I think the latter was a dialect book.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 13 August 2021 18:47 (three years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Monday, 16 August 2021 00:01 (three years ago)

The Club Dumas is a fun read. It was made into the weird movie The Ninth Gate, where Polanski changed the ending to show off his wife's boobs.

adam t. (abanana), Monday, 16 August 2021 16:36 (three years ago)

I'm reading The Virgin Suicides right now, having picked up an old copy at the weekend. Reminds me of Updike doing his Nabokov impression but I would've loved it in 1993, probably.

mahb, Monday, 16 August 2021 20:16 (three years ago)

Loved the movie, never tried to read the book.

Roffle Tolhurst (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 16 August 2021 21:39 (three years ago)

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

System, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 00:01 (three years ago)

I missed this one - I would have voted for La Maravilla. I wanted to read it again recently and it took awhile to track down a copy.

Jaq, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 00:31 (three years ago)

Voted Butler over Welsh & Proulx & Banville, another somewhat disappointing year though (speaking solely of my choices).

Believe me, grow a lemon tree. (ledge), Tuesday, 17 August 2021 06:14 (three years ago)

Echoing others I am finding less of interest in this stretch, w lots of blind spots as usual. Will def have something to vote for next year tho

Woolf & Stein 3d (wins), Tuesday, 17 August 2021 08:34 (three years ago)

better list it wins or there's a good chance I won't know to include it :)

bit of a break from these for the next month tho as I'm on hols

Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 10:45 (three years ago)

what a bad year for books

the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Tuesday, 17 August 2021 11:11 (three years ago)

Britpop year

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 12:41 (three years ago)

one month passes...

business is resumed:

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1994

koogs, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 17:59 (three years ago)

your efforts are much appreciated

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 21 September 2021 18:02 (three years ago)

W00t!

Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Tuesday, 21 September 2021 19:55 (three years ago)


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