I just started Pale Fire and am finding it interesting and amusing so far. I read the foreword and started reading the commentary and the poem together as...
Jemmy: I'm glad you like the book too. It's unusual, but I found it grabbed me. I think you are right about Kimbote. I think part (not all) of the fascination...
I finished Love, the latest novel by Toni Morrison. While a 21st century novel and thus off topic, I thought the group is close enough to contemporary fiction...
I have now read the first part of the poem and the first part of the commentary. And I must admit that I don't like it much. I found it amusing at first, but...
Jenny: You could skip the rest of the poem--you don't really need it for the rest of the book. The book is quirky; Nabokov is playing games with style here,...
I finished Portnoy's Complaint. Because of the raunchiness I really didn't enjoy it very much. But I did finish it in a couple of days so maybe I liked it ...
Lisa and Henry, I read Portnoy years ago and I'm not planning on re-reading it. I was young at the time and it seemed REALLY raunchy to me, so I don't think I...
Thanks Henry. I''ve been considering reading this book, and your description convinced me. Morrison at her best, as in Song of Solomon, is one of our best...
Hello everyone~ I'm a new member here and was trying to figure out what the reading schedule is. It seems like some are reading Pale Fire while others are on...
The only other Roth I have read is Ghost Writer. It was a long time ago, but I recall it as very good and not very raunchy at all (particularly next to...
Thank you Henry~ I will be starting with Portnoy and look forward to reading the posts. ~Anita hecon_99 <no_reply@yahoogroups.com> wrote: The only other Roth I...
I finished Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint this weekend. I found it probably the most enjoyable of the books on the top 100 list that I've read. I often...
I finished it this weekend also. I enjoyed it a lot. I think the Gentlemen may enjoy the story a bit more but I thought it was thoughtful, honest and funny....
... Great observation! I grew up (and continue to live) in a place where there is virtually no cultural diversity whatsoever. I likewise am not Jewish,...
Has anyone finished the Mailer book, Naked and the Dead I think? I read it a few months ago and was much better than I thought it would be. Elizabeth...
I read 'The Naked and the Dead' years ago when I was perhaps a young man of twenty, and I thought the writing was brilliant. Mailer has such a straightforward,...
I started it this weekend. Thus far kind of explicit, but I do like "the insider" feel of expatriot Paris. ... __________________________________ Do you...
I'm glad I'm not the only one. Explicit is surely is, but it makes sex seem so unpleasant, I wonder if it should be used in abstinence education for teenagers....
I will try, but all I have read about it and after reading the first three paragraphs leave me thinking I will not finish this one either. "I am living at the...
Hi - It's been a little while since I read Tropic of Cancer, but I read through it all and definitely would say I enjoyed it and thought it was good. Even...
It is strange, do others agree: The majority of books on this list are good for breakthrough reasons and hard core readers that don't like "fluff". I tell ...
What books from the list would you recommend to someone less into the literature and more into the page-turners? I'd go with Sophie's Choice, Lolita, The Magus...
I appreciate you writing and explaining your take on why a novel is considered "great" literature. I will try and finish this book, but I make no promises;-) ...
First off, maybe more than any list book including the Joyce fatties, ... Yes.. this is so true! I tried to read Ulysses like I would read Steinbeck or Nabokov...
I finished the book and it leaves me with questions. (Maybe that is a sign of a great book.) On the front page, the narrator says he has no prospects, no ...
