Novelists whose writing you like, except their novels

I'm sure there are several of these for me, but the first that comes to mind is Will Self. I always enjoy reading his journalism and non-fiction, he's had some great and incisive things to say about novelists and artists I love, more often than not I find myself agreeing with him, he's super-intelligent and witty, I like his media persona. But I've never got on with his novels, I just can't get past his baroque style, so different to when he's writing non-fiction.

Actually if you widen the field to artists in general, then there are probably dozens of these for me. I enjoy reading Peter Greenaway on film, without ever really liking (or really hating, I guess) his films. I enjoyed reading Momus's blog, although I don't like his music. Julian Cope is another.

Martin Scorcese — love his commentary, lukewarm about his films.

Jeanette Winterson, for the most part.

i don't really go for guy maddin as a filmmaker but love his writing on cinema
never read susan sontag's fiction because i assumed i'd hate it

Amis, except Money!

have always enjoyed john walters' essays, tv appearances etc much more than i've ever enjoyed his movies

Geoff Dyer, excepting Colour of Memory (though that's barely a novel). Since Arc D'X, Steve Erickson.

james baldwin

Possibly, actually, Henry James!

do you prefer his short stories to his novels, pinefox? (borges was the same)

Yes - though I don't know the novels well enough for that to be a substantial view. I like the NYRB book of New York Stories of HJ. I was also thinking of his literary criticism, prefaces, 'the art of fiction' and so on - I think it's true that I enjoy these more than HJ's actual fiction.

(+ Proust, though I haven't read any non-fiction by Proust)

pretty sure some ppl would have this opinion for dfw? (not me tho)

James Tiptree

Baldwin's a good choice. As a novelist he's merely intelligent; as an essayist he's got range of feeling and considerable resourcefulness.

DFW?

David Foster Wallace?

yeah...I've never actually finished one of his novels but the excerpts I've read have always made be blergh. I love his nonfiction stuff though

Maugham

Wilde

Stephen Fry is a complete renaissance man...but somewhere along the line I still consider him a novelist. I'm not a fan really, but he wrote this absolutely beautiful piece for Gay Times and The Guardian: a letter to his younger self. It gets to the bone in a way his other prose really doesn't for me.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/30/stephen-fry-letter-gay-rights

Updike [runs for cover]

Oh, hey, Didion.

YES

damn yeah totally didion

Yes, Didion
but the strange thing I have found is
a lot of her non-fiction isn't actually
that good either

*farts on pinefox*

I don't dislike Stephen King's novels, but I've just posted that I much prefer his short stories/novellas on another thread so it seemed fitting to note.

pinefox, haiku are three lines

I knew someone was going to say Didion, but I totally disagree, just on the basis of "Play It As It Lays" alone. That's the only one I've read at the moment, but I'm in the middle of "Democracy" and am really into it; I like it's meta-angle which is really well executed (and I often find metaness pretty obnoxious). I just picked up her 1st novel, "Run River," too.

Sontag.

That being said, Didion's 1st 2 books of essays are so badass that I imagine most of her fictional work is not on the same level.

I read Sontag's "regarding the Pain of Others" recently and was blown away. She seems to be so intellectually-minded that I can't imagine her fiction being anything but annoying. But, here prose in those essays is pretty remarkable, so I dunno.

A lot of people seem to put VS Naipul in this category.

I'm not gonna touch any of Nick Tosches' novels.

The Volcano Lover and her AIDS story from the mid eighties are decent stabs at romance and "experimental" fiction respectively, but her other novels are chic in the wrong ways.

Tom Wolfe

Was gonna say Sontag but stopped, because, well, she really is a critic first and foremost - despite what NYRB say on their bio in Serge's The Case of Comrade Tulayev (which they paste her essay on as an intro). They mention "Seven works of non-fiction" last.

Virginia Woolf - I much prefer The Common Reader to her novels.

Iris Murdoch - some of her non-fiction is brilliant. Her novels are entertaining enough (I'm currently reading Under The Net) but I've never managed to summon up huge enthusiasm for them.

I agree with Pinefox that Martin Amis's non-fiction is better than his novels, although I think his best novels are the early, relatively unambitious ones rather than "Money". (I'm also lukewarm about Didion's non-fiction but haven't read any of her novels.)

Gore Vidal (although I've not read much of his fiction).

Suspect also Updike and Anthony Powell, although I haven't read enough of their non-fiction to be sure.

http://www.kaleidoscopekreations.com/artists/JeanSebastien/artworks/photographs/img/BENETTON.JPG

Vidal's non-fiction and fiction are aimed at rather different audiences.

Jerome Charyn -- great non-fiction books, but every time I see his novels they just seem like books I would hate. I did try one from his quirky new york jewish detective series, but I gave up after maybe 30pgs or so.

I love Vidal's novels. They're as bitchy and hilarious as his best essays (and they work as fictsion, yes).

I'd probably be tempted to add Norman Mailer to the list if I gave enough of a shit to actually read him.