which foreign literature do you like best?

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i'm trying to decide between russian and german myself

― Zeno, Friday, 30 March 2007 23:16 (eighteen years ago)

As far as recent stuff goes, I guess American would be it. What a dull, dull answer. This is in large part based on that stuff being by far what I've had the most exposure to.

― Øystein, Friday, 30 March 2007 23:28 (eighteen years ago)

German.
I'm about a quarter through "The Tin Drum" by Gunter Grass, and I'm loving it.

― theoreo, Saturday, 31 March 2007 00:45 (eighteen years ago)

Almost all of what I read is "foreign" as I don't read TONS of NZ lit (much less than I should, really). I've been increasingly interested in Russian and Eastern European writers lately, but probably British/UK is the geographical area whose authors I read MOST, followed by the USA I suppose.

― franny glass, Saturday, 31 March 2007 02:08 (eighteen years ago)

can i just do what most bookstores/lit departments do and say "latin america"?

― max, Saturday, 31 March 2007 15:28 (eighteen years ago)

Although this answer changes from year to year, I'd have to say Japan right now.

Oe, Tanizaki, Soseki, Kawabata... etc.

I love it.

― silence dogood, Sunday, 1 April 2007 04:56 (eighteen years ago)

I rarely if ever read Belgian books. It just doesn't appeal to me. But also because I used to buy books cheap and the cheapest books were paperbacks in English. As I like(d) the language, I just bought American novels and the like. As a teenager I was probably more into English literature, now it's a mix really. Lately I have been getting into Russian literature but overall I think I read American lit the most.

― nathalie, Sunday, 1 April 2007 08:16 (eighteen years ago)

Can I be fairly specific and say Austro-Hungarian? There's a whole bunch of writers (such as Stefan Zweig, Arthur Schnitzler and especially the great Joseph Roth) who produced magical, magical books between about 1880 and 1940.

Though, since I'm an Australian who reads tonnes of British stuff, I guess the most accurate answer would be British.

― James Morrison, Sunday, 1 April 2007 12:22 (eighteen years ago)

Martian literature has always tickled my fancy. As has Jupiterian.

― Skrik, Sunday, 1 April 2007 14:13 (eighteen years ago)

this question is horribly insulting and absolutely racist.

that said, the answer is Russia.

― modestmickey, Monday, 2 April 2007 00:26 (eighteen years ago)

And Franz Kafka! I forgot him a la Austro-Hungary.

― James Morrison, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 01:12 (eighteen years ago)

I'd qualify him as more Czech than Austro-Hungarian, but what do you think of Hasek, James?

― Michael White, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 13:55 (eighteen years ago)

What about Musil, James Morrison?

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 14:10 (eighteen years ago)

Musil is without quality.

― Michael White, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 22:18 (eighteen years ago)

What about Herman broch and Thomas Bernhard, j.morrison?

― Zeno, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 00:46 (eighteen years ago)

Get out your Handke-chiefs!

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 02:16 (eighteen years ago)

He's the Mann.

― Casuistry, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 03:45 (eighteen years ago)

I really like Bernhard's short fiction - yet to tackle his longer stuff. Herman Broch I like without raving about - I've done the first 2 books of the Sleepwalkers, and am a little daunted by the third, as I am by Musil's big book (though Torless was brilliant). And Kafka was Czech, true, but when he was born and for much of his life it was Austro-Hungary, so I'll pigeonhole him like that for these temporary purposes.

Hasek I have not yet read - yet again, I own it but am daunted by the size. But with the 4-day Easter weekend coming up? Or else I'll probably read some post-apocalyptic depression-fest.

― James Morrison, Thursday, 5 April 2007 02:46 (eighteen years ago)

My friend just told me that I would never be able to fully comprehend Russian literature because I haven't lived there, but that she had no problem understanding "Western" literature. I mean, I can understand the part where she says I will never be able to completely *feel* for example Master & Margarita, but that doesn't mean that it's not the case vice versa. She's a complete snob in this regard and I'm just stubborn to admit she's (partially) right.

― nathalie, Thursday, 5 April 2007 10:42 (eighteen years ago)

I like Brit lit! old brit lit mostly. i know, boring. but what are you gonna do? after that, russia. or maybe france. but i only read old stuff when it comes to russia and france. still so much i have to get to...

― scott seward, Friday, 6 April 2007 04:23 (eighteen years ago)

nathalie, what's the purpose of making an argument like that? it seems that it only serves to discourage from reading foreign literature, which i don't think ANY reader would consider a good thing.

― modestmickey, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

Hasek I have not yet read - yet again, I own it but am daunted by the size

This is one book that's always on my bedside table. I can open it at random and am sure to be laughing within minutes.

― Michael White, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 20:42 (eighteen years ago)

xpost I think she's just a bit of a misguided snob. She has these wild crazy ideas about culture. She keeps saying that our society is debilitating (as in growing dumber, but she doesn't realize that it's the wrong word).

― nathalie, Friday, 13 April 2007 12:55 (eighteen years ago)

Ha ha!

― Michael White, Saturday, 14 April 2007 17:06 (eighteen years ago)

For me it would have to be British and French with some African and a touch of the Irish. I can read anything, old and new, that's British and Irish but so far I've only explored 19th and early 20thC French. For African lit I've only read works from Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa but both Armah and Adichie have written two of my absolute favourite books in the world.

― Arethusa, Sunday, 15 April 2007 00:23 (eighteen years ago)

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