50 forgotten and neglected book gems selected by contemporary authors
March 12, 2008 4:21 pm What to ReadHow did we miss these? | By guardian.co.uk Books: “How did we miss these?
“Far from the fame and glamour of the Booker and bestsellers is a forgotten world of literary treasures - brilliant but underrated novels that deserve a second chance to shine. …
There’s no accounting for taste. Almost every reader has a novelist or poet whose work they believe to be shamefully undervalued. When, in an exercise conducted from time to time in the literary press, The Observer decided to approach 50 contemporary novelists to ask for their nominations in this department we could, by definition, have no idea what the outcome would be. Still, the results of this poll have been fascinating and instructive. We hope our readers will be inspired to go off -piste in pursuit of the rare and the beautiful.”
I was directed to this post when it first came out, and I am slowly working through these books. It seems that books on “must-read lists” are repeated over and over. There are some ones on this list that I had not heard before, and some great out-of-print gems. Read the full article part 1 and part 2.
Looking down the list, I have managed to acquire some of these books since reading the list (Hunger, the Unconsoled, Blood Kin, Riddley Scott), but of course, have not yet read any of them.
Has anyone read any of these? What do you think? Or perhaps you can suggest another book that should be more widely recommended than it is.
The recommended books (preceded by recommending author):
1. Will Self: Lanark (1981) by Alasdair Gray
2. MJ Hyland: A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) by Flannery O’Connor
3. Charlotte Mendelson: Angel (1957) by Elizabeth Taylor
4. Toby Litt: The Wind From Nowhere (1961) by JG Ballard
5. Nicola Barker: The Obscene Bird of Night (1970) by Jose Donoso
6. John Mortimer: Midnight (1936) by Julien Green
7. Colm Toibin: New Perspective (1980) by K Arnold Price
8. Russell Hoban: The Reef (1912) by Edith Wharton
9. Lynne Truss: Strange Fits of Passion (1991) by Anita Shreve
10. Anita Brookner: Belchamber (1904) by Howard O Sturgis
11. Philip Hensher: Pendennis (1850) by William Makepeace
12. Beryl Bainbridge: The Drinker (1950) by Hans Fallada
13. William Boyd: Incandescence (1979) by Craig Nova
14. Hari Kunzru: The Case of Comrade Tulayev (1948) by Victor Serge
15. Helen Fielding: Any Human Heart (2002) by William Boyd
16. Ben Okri: Labyrinths (1971) by Christopher Okigbo
17. Jilly Cooper: The Tortoise and the Hare (1954) by Elizabeth Jenkins
18. Philip Pullman: The Balloonist (1977) by MacDonald Harris
19. Michael Chabon: The Long Ships (1941-45) by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson
20. Lionel Shriver: As Meat Loves Salt (2001) by Maria McCann
21. Romesh Gunesekera: Season of Migration to the North (1966) by Tayeb Salih
22. Peter Ho Davies: The Cottagers (2006) by Marshall N Klimasewiski
23. Howard Jacobson :Rasselas (1759) by Samuel Johnson
24. Tim Lott: Amanda and the Million Mile High Dancer (1985) by Carol De Chellis Hill
25. Siri Hustvedt: Life With a Star (1949) by Jiri Weil
26. David Peace: Eden Eden Eden (1970) by Pierre Guyotat
27. Sylvia Brownrigg: Why Did I Ever (2001) by Mary Robison
28. Val McDermid: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972) by George V Higgins
29. Alan Warner: Death and Nightingales (1992) by Eugene McCabe
30. Kate Mosse: The Complete John Silence Stories (1908) by Algernon Blackwood
31. Jenny Diski: Blaming (1976) by Elizabeth Taylor
32. Rachel Seiffert: Riddley Walker (1980) by Russell Hoban
33. John Banville: Langrishe, Go Down (1966) by Aidan Higgins
34. Geoff Dyer: The Conclave (1992) by Michael Bracewell
35. Hisham Matar: Blood Kin (2007) by Ceridwen Dovey
36. James Lasdun: The Short Stories of Breece D’J Pancake (collected in 1983) by Breece D’J Pancake
37. Ian Rankin: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) by James Hogg
38. Rupert Thomson: The Unconsoled (1995) by Kazuo Ishiguro
39. Jane Gardam: Pig and Pepper (1936) by David Footman
40. Mavis Cheek: The Gentleman of the Party (1934) by AG Street
41. Nikita Lalwani: Bear v. Shark (2001) by Chris Bachelder
42. Jane Rogers: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (1971) by Elizabeth Taylor
43. As Byatt: Some Do Not (1924), No More Parades (1925), A Man Could Stand Up (1926) by Ford Madox Ford
44. Mohsin Hamid: Pereira Declares: A Testimony (first published in Spanish, 1994) by Antonio Tabucchi
45. Ali Smith: No Pain Like This Body (1972) by Harold Sonny Ladoo
46. Jackie Kay: Obasan (1981) by Joy Kogawa
47. Joanna Kavenna: Hunger (1890) by Knut Hamsun
48. Tobias Hill: Portrait of a Young Man Drowning (1962) by Charles Perry
49. Jonathan Coe: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1975) by David Nobbs
50. Nicci Gerrard: The Law of Dreams (2006) by Peter Behrens
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- Book Review: Neuromancer by William Gibson
- Book Review: Diary of a Nobody by G and W Grossmith
- Breathtaking Book Bindings
- Book review: Tinker, tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre
