Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novel Of The 1950's

Have read 4 of these. In the silence I'll never know, but if I must go on, I'll vote for The Unnamable.

Invisible Man for me, the ultimate Great American Novel.

I'm very fond of The Martian Chronicles and The Fall, but I'm really torn between Invisible Man and Lolita

This is a v strong list all round

Beckett

I can't choose b/w Invisible Man and The Unnameable. Ellison and Beckett coulda swapped titles!

I really like to read Invisible Man. I will note it down for this year as I am running out of new books to read

It's brilliant

I voted for Lolita tho, the heart wants what the heart wants

lolita for me too

but for different reasons!

Things Fall Apart. Glad to see some African fiction make it.
I've read seven. Bonjour Tristesse is fine but has no business being on this list.

The Invisible Man is not just a great novel today, in its time it was epochal. It showed a side of the black experience in the USA that had never been openly portrayed in literature and made it uncomfortably real to anyone who cared to read. It's a Moby Dick or Great Gatsby level achievement. One of the greats.

i've read seven. lolita, but i read it a long time ago and i wonder how it would hit now i'm older and have kids.

Read five of these.

My 15-year-old kid asked me about *Lolita* recently. She gets most of her recommendations from Tik Tok so I'm intrigued as to how it's being portrayed there and under what kind of rubric. We read the opening together and jesus it just sings. I found myself saying to her something like 'whatever you're thinking, Nabokov has already thought and considered it, processed your reaction to those thoughts, discarded it and moved five paces ahead. Plus he doesn't give a shit anyway.'

I got bogged down with some of the picaresque sections of *Invisible Man* but equally found some sections just soared. It's certainly a remarkable book.

*On the Road* feels like the odd one out. Something of the rhythm of it got into me when I read it; I can still feel a buzz from the clickety-clack of his writing (typing). I'd chuck *The Dharma Bums* a vote if it were here.

Lolita is a towering acheivement, but Invisible Man is,imho, the greatest American novel.

*achievement

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novel Of The 1960's

xps to Chinaski Nabokov understood the difference between depiction and endorsement. I remember first reading this as a teenage girl myself and the scene that leapt out at me, that I almost never saw mentioned in any stupid pieces about the book (hidden not because explicit but because the implications of this meeting have haunted me):

“The general impression is that fifteen-year-old Dolly remains morbidly uninterested in sexual matters, or to be exact, represses her curiosity in
order to save her ignorance and self-dignity. All right-fourteen. You see, Mr. Haze, Beardsley School does not believe in bees and blossoms, and storks
and love birds, but it does believe very strongly in preparing its students for mutually satisfactory mating and successful child rearing. We feel Dolly
could make excellent progress if only she would put her mind to her work. Miss Cormorant's report is significant in that respect. Dolly is inclined to
be, mildly speaking, impudent. But all feel that primo, you should have your family doctor tell her the facts of life and, secundo, that you allow her to enjoy the company of her schoolmates' brothers at the
Junior Club or in Dr. Rigger's organization, or in the lovely homes of our parents."

"She may meet boys at her own lovely home," I said.

"I hope she will," said Pratt buoyantly. "When we questioned her about her troubles, Dolly refused to discuss the home situation, but we have spoken to some of her friends and really--well, for example, we insist you un-veto her nonparticiaption in the dramatic group. You just must allow her to take part in The Hunted Enchanters. She was such a perfect little nymph in the try-out, and sometime in spring the author will stay for a few days at Beardsley College and may attend a rehearsal or two in our new auditorium. I mean it is all part of the fun of being young and alive and beautiful. You must understand--"

"I always thought of myself," I said, "as a very understanding father."
"Oh, no doubt, no doubt, but Miss Cormorant thinks, and I am inclined to agree with her, that Dolly is obsessed by sexual thoughts for which she finds no outlet, and will tease and martyrize other girls, or even our younger instructors because they do have innocent dates with boys."

Shrugged my shoulders. A shabby emigré.

"Let us put our two heads together, Mr. Haze. What on earth is wrong with that child?"
"She seems quite normal and happy to me," I said (disaster coming at last? Was I found out? Had they got some hypnotist?).

"What worries me," said Miss Pratt looking at her watch and starting to go over the whole subject again, "is that both teachers and schoolmates find
Dolly antagonistic, dissatisfied, cagey--and everybody wonders why you are so firmly opposed to all the natural recreations of a normal child."

I think I was clumsily trying to say 'depiction not endorsement', gyac - the whole 'the immorality is Humbert's sense, not mine'. I'd love her to read it and find her way with it. I'd love to read it with her but would be worried about being too present and bossy in the reading.

That passage is so grim. It's by the by, but it could almost be from The Bell Jar.