Robert Dunbar's Blog

It's always nice to see a new review, even if a book has been extensively reviewed before. It's the kind of thing that keeps a writer going.

"Infinitely mesmerizing and suspenseful." ~ Notes from an Eclectic Reader (On Facebook.)

https://www.facebook.com/NotesFromAnE...

LITERARY DARKNESS is a book discussion group on Goodreads with over 3,700 members, many of them teachers, librarians, writers – passionate readers all. As the group progresses through its ninth year, our knowledgeable and enthusiastic membership continues to analyze and appreciate dark literature. Many wonderful books are out there, and we hope to experience them all. Our goal is to help others discover them as well.

Some books become lights in the eternal darkness. LITERARY DARKNESS is dedicated to an appreciation of important works of literature, both classic and contemporary, that happen to fall into the category of dark fiction. We tend to avoid the big, banal blockbusters (and more lurid fare) in favor of beautifully written explorations of the unknown, many obscure, all extraordinary. In addition to maintaining hundreds of ongoing conversations – on topics ranging from favorite classics to cutting-edge subgenres – LITERARY DARKNESS features a popular group reading series. What follows is a list of our most recent group reads.

THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR by Josephine Tey (current)

THE RIM OF MORNING by William Sloane

THE MEMORY POLICE by Yōko Ogawa

VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, edited by Tara Moore

WAR WITH THE NEWTS by Karel Čapek

THE CONTINUOUS KATHERINE MORTENHOE by DG Compton

LESS THAN HUMAN by Gary Raisor

IN A LONELY PLACE by Dorothy B. Hughes

THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR by Anne Rivers Siddons

FICCONES by Jorge Luis Borges

NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES by Cornell Woolrich

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER by Davis Grubb

THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt

CARMILLA by J. Sherdan Le Fanu

A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER by Roger Zelazny

BOY'S LIFE by Robert R. McCammon

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess

THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James


https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...


Come. Savor the darkness with us.

All these years after this book was released, and I’m still amazed by the intensity of the new reviews. (Actually, I'm just as amazed by the fact that there are new reviews.) Kevin Lucia’s sensitive and deeply emotive response appeared last week online at Cemetery Dance (Revelations). I found it especially moving because of my appreciation for Lucia’s writing.




https://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/...


I had much the same reaction (for much the same reason) to Mike Thorn’s review at Unnerving Magazine last year.

“Challenging and rewarding… Dunbar’s Pines Trilogy stands among the genre’s most finely crafted contemporary series.” ~ Unnerving Magazine

May such responses continue to appear!

LITERARY DARKNESS is a book discussion group on Goodreads with over 3,500 members, many of them teachers, librarians, writers – passionate readers all. As the group progresses through its eighth year, our knowledgeable and enthusiastic membership continues to analyze and appreciate dark literature. This annual list of notable books is in no way intended as an award; nor is it meant to imply exclusivity. It is a reading list, pure and simple. Many wonderful books are out there, and we hope to experience them all. Our goal is to help others discover them as well.

Come. Explore with us.

Some books become lights in the eternal darkness. What follows is a list of recommendations and commendations … combined with expressions of heartfelt gratitude to the many fine writers who keep readers awake at night.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Fresh Blood:
These are new titles recognized by the group as having made a considerable impact during the past year.

Nona's Room by Cristina Fernández Cubas
Switchblade by Sandy DeLuca
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez
A Winter Sleep by Greg F. Gifune
Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
Things You Need by Kevin Lucia
Bone White by Ronald Malfi
The Anomaly by Michael Rutger
Darkest Hours by Mike Thorn
Little Eve by Catriona Ward

Contemporary:
These may be collections of short fiction or literary essays, anthologies or novels. All are from the recent past and all are extraordinary.

Sacrificial Nights by Bruce Boston and Alessandro Manzetti
Speaking to Skull Kings and Other Stories by Emily B. Cataneo
The Bone Mother by David Demchuk
The Lost Daughter Collective by Lindsey Drager
Paupers’ Graves by James Everington
The Witch Elm by Tana French
And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe by Gwendolyn Kiste
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country: and Other Stories by Chavisa Woods

Vintage:
Calling a book a Classic can be like entombing it. Many readers would sooner pry open the lid of a coffin than peer between those musty pages. Often this represents a sort of tragedy: some books seethe with life and emotion… and cry out to be read. These are among our favorites.

The October Country by Ray Bradbury
The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore
The Shadow Year: A Novel by Jeffrey Ford
The Cormorant by Stephen Gregory
The Snowman's Children by Glen Hirshberg
The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan
Feesters in the Lake & Other Stories by Bob Leman
The Night Country by Stewart O’Nan
Holiday by M. Ricker
Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich

Buried Treasures:
This is a list of titles, some celebrated, some obscure, that in so many ways evoke the finest qualities of literary darkness.

The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
The Chimes by Charles Dickens
The Invisible Eye: Tales of Terror by Emile Erckmann and Louis Alexandre Chatrian
The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene
Checkmate by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Thus Were Their Faces: Selected Short Stories by Silvina Ocampo
Denis Bracknel by Forrest Reid
The Hole of the Pit by Adrian Ross
Randalls Round by Eleanor Scott

LITERARY DARKNESS is dedicated to an appreciation of important works of literature, both classic and contemporary, that happen to fall into the category of dark fiction. We tend to avoid the big, banal blockbusters (and more lurid fare) in favor of beautifully written explorations of the unknown, many obscure, all extraordinary. In addition to maintaining hundreds of ongoing conversations – on topics ranging from favorite classics to cutting-edge subgenres – LITERARY DARKNESS features a popular group reading series.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Come. Savor the darkness with us.

My trilogy -- THE PINES, THE SHORE and THE STREETS -- is finally completed. The novels have been extensively revised, and all now have beautiful matching covers. (The flock of birds on each cover is, indeed, the same photograph, digitally altered. In case you were wondering.) Chas Hendricksen did the artwork, and I think you can see why I'm so pleased with them.

The books are featured on the new website (also extensively revised) for Uninvited Books, complete with reviews, interviews, and synopses.

www.UninvitedBooks.com

Drop by. (At least to see the covers in close up!) Let me know what you think.

The Pines Trilogy keeps getting closer to actually happening.

Keeps.

Actually.

It’s like a fantasy. (For me anyway.) I find myself picturing new versions of all the three books with gorgeous matching covers. I imagine them revised (in bits, here and there) and most importantly re-edited. Especially THE PINES. Don’t get me started.

What’s happened to make this possible?

THE STREETS, final part of the trilogy, continues to attract excellent reviews, and – quite recently – the rights for THE PINES and THE SHORE were returned to me by 47North. (I asked for them, begged for them. They were nice about it … eventually.) As you can imagine, I’m very pleased about this. The new covers for the editions are beautiful, deep, atmospheric. I’m very pleased about my recent rewrite for THE PINES, and the new version of THE SHORE is cooking along nicely.



Currently, only the first and third entries in the trilogy are available at Amazon, but the new version for the middle part will be along soon ... in a couple of weeks probably. There’ve been a million challenges in this process. Again, don’t get me started. It’s all been daunting to say the least. But the number of errors (and the ham-fisted editing) couldn’t be permitted to stand. After all these years, the text has finally been corrected. Another month and all three of the books will be available at Amazon as paperbacks and ebooks.



I’m excited.

Now… about those new reviews…

Here’s a couple of them.

“A densely populated and intricately plotted work of fiction, whose complexity is magnified by the Hemingway-like concision of Dunbar’s prose… evokes the pleasurable difficulty of reading such heavyweights as Southern Gothic scribe William Faulkner… As an individual novel, it’s excellent; but taken as a whole, Dunbar’s Pines Trilogy stands among the genre’s most finely crafted contemporary series.”
~ Unnerving Magazine
http://www.unnervingmagazine.com/sing...

“What Dunbar does best in The Streets is redefine the word "Monster." Monsters are not only humanized, they are celebrated. They love and are loved. The reader can gaze on the Monsters and see their beauty.”
~ Mrs. Hoskins Summer Reading
https://www.facebook.com/Mrs.HoskinsS...

"Fascinating ... richly written ... prose capturing the beauty and horror weaves within the narrative to spin a yarn that is unforgettable."
~ MBLiterary
https://www.mbliterary.com/single-pos...

“A remarkable example of a thoughtful and talented writer engaged in pushing the boundaries of the genre.”
~ Horror Novel Reviews
http://horrornovelreviews.com/2016/02...

“Dread-inducing, yet remarkably life-affirming ... with amazing depth and emotion.”
~ Nameless Digest
http://www.namelessdigest.com/2015/11...

“Dunbar shows considerable skill … mixing both genre and literary influences into a style all his own.”
~ This Is Horror
http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/look-ou...


Did I mention that I’m very pleased?

Writers don’t get to talk about their work much. (Go ahead. Try to interject an anecdote about “character development” or “plot logic” into a conversation. Watch how bored civilians get. And how quickly.) But what else can a writer even talk about? I mean, this is me. This is my life. It’s what I do. If I remove myself from the conversation, I’m left just smiling and nodding.

Fascinating, yes. Uh huh.

Connections are… difficult. You can see people staring at you, but you can’t really see them. You’re really trying to work out that awkward bit of dialogue in chapter fourteen.

Interesting lifestyle choice.

I figured, maybe if I gave all my readers a heads up all at once…

Okay then. At this point, I’m desperately and completely consumed by “Tremble.” No, it’s not a drug. Not exactly. It’s the working title for my new novel. And it is of course killing me. After the last one, I thought I’d write something, you know, easy. Lots of action. An actual monster. Basic situation: a gang of characters barricaded in an old dark house, just trying to survive the night. Hell, just trying to survive. Then I got this really clever idea. Really really clever. I know, I thought to myself, I’ll make them all trash characters. You know? The sort that get disposed of early in a horror movie? Yes, that’s the way to go.

I must be out of my mind. Was I concentrating on unlikable characters to keep myself from becoming too close with these persons? Why did it never occur to me that – hey – these are my people? Suddenly, I am totally involved in their struggle.

Like I said, it’s killing me. It’s also taking me a lot longer to write than it should. There are a few reasons. I started a major editing assignment. Then I let myself get talked into writing a short story that floated off on a tangent… and then another tangent… and then…

And then there’s THE PINES and THE SHORE, two-thirds of my trilogy. For years, they’ve been comfortably ensconced at 47North (with the final part of the series at long last appearing at Uninvited Books). This didn’t seem to bother any of the editors at 47North, but it was sort of driving me a little crazy. There’s a reason I’m bringing this up now. After just a few months of my nagging them, they’ve agreed to release the books. So here I am, finally (finally!) consumed with rewriting and editing and working on the layout and cover (to match THE STREETS). Will they eventually be sold as a boxed trilogy set? It could happen. Will there be signed hardback collector copies? There’s an awful lot of work involved in this.



(Oh, and by the way, my novel THE STREETS is currently available for reviewing at Netgalley. It’s free, but if you’re not a member you’ll need to create a profile. The link for my book is here: https://www.netgalley.com/widget/open...)

A whole new website for Uninvited Books is also being developed. I’m excited.

That’s pretty much it with me, though it feels a lot busier. Oh, wait, the first foreign language version of one of my books is approaching as well. My novel WILLY is being released by Good Kill Edizioni (Rome), the editor of which called it “awesome.”



All right then. I’m pleased.

Back to work.

It was a dark and stormy morning…

Traditional ghosts fade with the dawn. The fears that haunt our dreams evaporate by first light, but there are worse things, worse specters. Far more fearsome are those spirits that do not flee the daybreak.

They stay with us. And torment us. They blight our lives, plague our minds. They linger.

They become part of us.

Each of the authors presented here understands this fact … only too well.

“HAUNTED DAWN: A Literary Horror Anthology” features work by Paul G. Bens, Jr., Lisa von Biela, Justin Bogdanovitch, Chesya Burke, Kealan P. Burke, Nickolas Cook, P.D. Cacek, Jameson Currier, Keith Deininger, Sandy DeLuca, Robert Dunbar, James Everington, Greg F. Gifune, John Grover, Gerard Houarner, Lauren James, Kevin Lucia, Ronald Malfi, Lisa Mannetti, Elizabeth Massie, and B.E. Sculy.

Does horror have to be the same old thing? Over and over?

So many books seem like variants on a theme. Seriously? How many “totally new twists” on zombies or werewolves could there be? Maybe a vampire romance? Or -- I know -- how about some more stories “inspired” by Lovecraft?

Oh please.

Wouldn’t you like to read something… different? For a change? Something original? Here’s a radical idea – how about cutting-edge authors who have already invested their considerable talents in pushing the boundaries of the genre? How about literary artistry, creative intelligence … and transcendent chills?

How about paying the writers?

(Now there’s a concept.)

Here’s your chance to help Haunted Dawn see the light of day.

* * *

I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that the Kickstarter project for Haunted Dawn is up and running. Please do what you can to help promote it. Thanks!
Rob

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

LITERARY DARKNESS is a book discussion group on Goodreads with over 3,000 members, many of them teachers, librarians, writers – passionate readers all. As the group enters its seventh year, our knowledgeable and enthusiastic membership continues to analyze and appreciate dark literature. This annual list of notable books is in no way intended as an award, nor is it meant to imply exclusivity. It is a reading list, pure and simple. Many wonderful books are out there, and we hope to experience them all. Our goal is to help others discover them as well.

Come. Explore with us.

Some books become lights in the eternal darkness. What follows is a list of recommendations and commendations … combined with expressions of heartfelt gratitude to the many fine writers who keep readers awake at night.

Fresh Blood:
These are new titles recognized by the group as having made a considerable impact during the past year.

Sacrificial Nights by Bruce Boston and Alessandro Manzetti
The Black Room Manuscripts edited by Daniel Marc Chant
The Haunting of Blackwood House by Darcy Coates
The Quarantined City by James Everington
Devil's Breath by Greg F. Gifune
Circus Philosophicus by Graham Harman
I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like by Justin Isis
Little Girls by Ronald Malfi
Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories edited by Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward
Aickman's Heirs edited by Simon Strantzas

Contemporary:
These may be collections of short fiction or literary essays, anthologies or novels. All are from the recent past and all are extraordinary.

Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler
The St. Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires by Eric Stener Carlson
Duplex by Kathryn Davis
Descent by Sandy DeLuca
Fugue State by Brian Evenson
After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones
Dreams of Shadow and Smoke: Stories for J.S. Le Fanu, edited by Jim Rockhill and Brian J. Showers
The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing by Nicholas Rombes
My Pet Serial Killer by Michael Seidlinger
Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck

Vintage:
Calling a book a Classic can be like entombing it. Many readers would sooner pry open the lid of a coffin than peer between those musty pages. Often this represents a sort of tragedy: some books seethe with life and emotion… and cry out to be read. These are among our favorites.

Vertigo by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac
Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly
Nazareth Hill by Ramsey Campbell
Fengriffen & Other Gothic Tales by David Case
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn
Dark Gods by T.E.D. Klein
Day Dark, Night Bright by Fritz Leiber
The Bad Seed by William March
The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories by Horacio Quiroga
Passion by I. U. Tarchetti

Buried Treasures:
This is a list of titles, some celebrated, some obscure, that in so many ways evoke the finest qualities of literary darkness.

Nightmares of an Ether Drinker by Jean Lorrain
Day of the Arrow by Philip Loraine
Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte
The Beetle: A Mystery by Richard Marsh
Gifts for the One Who Comes After by Helen Marshall
Looking for Jake and Other Stories by China Miéville
The Quincux by Charles Palliser
Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson
Don't Dream: The Collected Horror and Fantasy Fiction of Donald Wandrei
Descent into Hell by Charles Williams

LITERARY DARKNESS is dedicated to an appreciation of important works of literature, both classic and contemporary, that happen to fall into the category of dark fiction. We tend to avoid the big, banal blockbusters (and more lurid fare) in favor of beautifully written explorations of the unknown, many obscure, all extraordinary. In addition to maintaining hundreds of ongoing conversations – on topics ranging from favorite classics to cutting-edge subgenres – LITERARY DARKNESS features a popular group reading series. (We are currently reading THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood.) We also run a successful series of short story readings as well as a poetry series. Join us.

GROUP READING:
Over the years, we have discussed hundreds of titles and authors. In the past year, the following books were selected by the membership to be read within the group, and the links provided should help clarify some of the criteria involved.


DESPAIR by Vladimir Nabokov
http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2008/...


DHALGREN by Samuel R. Delany
http://www.theparisreview.org/intervi...


NOCTURNESby John Connolly
http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2005_...


A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND by Flannery O’Connor
http://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.ed...


THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS by Ursula K. LeGuin
http://www.newyorker.com/books/book-c...


THE BLOODY CHAMBER by Angela Carter
http://flavorwire.com/520449/in-the-e...


IN COLD BLOODby Truman Capote
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...


NARROW ROOMSby James Purdy
http://quarterlyconversation.com/the-...


STRANGERS ON A TRAIN by Patricia Highsmith
http://literarycornercafe.blogspot.co...


NO NIGHT IS TOO LONG by Barbara Vine
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ent...


For more information, visit the LITERARY DARKNESS group:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...


Come. Savor the darkness with us.

Can HORROR ever be literature?

Didn’t it used to be?

Obviously, Henry James thought so … as did Edith Wharton and Willa Cather. So did William Faulkner and Elizabeth Bowen and Robert Aickman. The list goes on and on. Extraordinary writers have flourished in the darkness, artists of the caliber of Ray Bradbury and Shirley Jackson, Algernon Blackwood and ...

Let’s see, who else? D. H. Lawrence, anyone? How about E.M. Forster? This was once the genre of geniuses, of Meyrink and Kafka and Gogol.

My point? Horror doesn't have to be defined (or limited) by “Bigfoot Massacre” or by yet another totally new spin on zombies. No, it’s only in recent years that the genre has hit rock bottom. But a few brave souls still labor in the horror mines, and sometimes they unearth … treasures. You might not think this so shocking an assertion, yet it can be counted on to provoke outrage among reactionary factions, the sort of people who feel empowered to dictate what the genre MUST be. And, yes, I know the same thing has been going on in the SF world, where champions of “good old-fashioned swashbuckling yarns” just happen to be racist, sexist homophobes who loathe “all that artsy stuff.” Can you imagine what kind of fiction such people prefer? I’ll give you a hint: subtle and sophisticated it ain’t.

And they get abusive about works that don’t fit their template.

A mob mentality comes into play. With Horror, this mandated mediocrity – what I think of as “the rule of dumb” – has largely driven serious literary practitioners into the arms of Noir and Suspense and Mystery and has had much the same effect on intelligent readers.

Cue the accusations of “pretension.”

Pretentious? Moi?

I promise I’m not pretending anything.

But I do realize that pronouncements like these are exactly why I’m such a troll magnet. Recently, a (financially) successful author gave me some (unsolicited) advice about what I’m doing wrong in my career. Doubtless he knows what he’s talking about, so I just want to go on record now as being in favor of apple pie and the flag. Oh, and I revere the institution of motherhood. Plus our troops totally rock. Also Jesus is my friend, and Lovecraft is my favorite author.

There. That should do it. I can’t wait to see the spike in my book sales.

Anyway, back to what I was saying (before I so rudely interrupted myself), I’m not advocating snobbishness here. The pulp novels of one generation can become the underground classics of the next. It’s a perpetual rebellion. Raw talent and creative energy are often quite rude, and so they should be. Art should startle as well as illuminate. It should outrage and inflame, always. But a penny dreadful remains a penny dreadful. A lot of the titles choking the genre these days are barely literate, let alone literary, and no one believes otherwise, not even the “writers” who grind them out like sausages. There’s a place for this sort of thing of course. Everyone is entitled to read what they enjoy (even if it’s essentially the same book over and over). But shouldn’t there be room for quality as well?

Okay, so some of you MAY have heard me rant about this before. I think it bears repeating. Plus I’ve had provocation. Of sorts. Horror Novel Reviews, an excellent site, recently ran a feature where a number of authors were asked about books that scared them. (The link is here: https://horrornovelreviews.com/2016/0....) Much as I enjoyed the responses from luminaries like Ramsey Campbell, it still reminded me of the old Shocklines message board. Does anybody even remember Shocklines? They were forever running those “what are the three best books ever?” polls, and a solid 90% of the responses would list “The Bible, The Stand, and _____.” For that last entry, most people just filled in whatever Great Book they could remember being forced to read in high school. “All Quiet on the Western Front.” “A Tale of Two Cities.” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Whatever. Ancillary discussion uniformly dismissed numerous brilliant works for being “difficult" or "too literary."

Personally, I’ve never been able to work out what a book should be if not literary. Musical? Athletic? It’s like criticizing a statue for being too sculptural. Don’t get me started.

Sorry. Sore subject. Where was I?

Oh. Right.

A glut of indistinguishable titles has smothered the genre before. Why is this so recurrent a menace? Other genres have advanced in style and sophistication (despite having to fight anti-progressive blocs within their own ranks). That’s what sustains a genre’s growth. Why hasn’t Horror experienced similar development? (Yes, yes, I know there are exceptions. There are amazing writers, incredible books. That’s just it: all novels should be exceptional.) Could it be that the genre’s essential conservatism – all those plot arcs about preserving some nice white family by destroying the dreaded "other" – dictates mediocrity? Perhaps reactionary art is just too much of an oxymoron to sustain.

I want to believe the genre can recover. I know, I know, everyone else thinks the genre is just great, never better. Stokers all around. It’s one of the areas in which I seem to be out of step with my colleagues. There may be others, one or two. For instance, I don’t do many cons anymore. There are… reasons. To begin with, whenever I arrive at a conference I always seem to be wearing a t-shirt that says “tell me about your psychic powers.”

How do you stand it? Are SF conferences full of authors just dying to share their alien abduction experiences? Do Mystery writers keep checking their phones to see if Scotland Yard has called to enlist their assistance with a difficult case? No, I think it’s mostly just Horror: the lunatics really are running this particular asylum. But even that’s not the real problem. It’s this fan-driven glorification of the ordinary, the average. People stand in front of audiences and brag that “us Horror writers aren’t all literary and artistic.”

Like it’s a point of pride.

I can remember moderating a panel where a bunch of twenty-somethings in the audience started denouncing authors whose work they didn’t care for. The list included Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck… in short everyone they’d ever heard of who wasn’t a popular hack. "Hemingway can’t write at all" struck me as a memorable line. (The conversation then veered into “when a work is pirated, we should all feel flattered” territory. How often is one actually aghast? I felt like a character in a Gaston Leroux novel.) Yet those kids all thought of themselves as writers, as did many of the people nodding in agreement. Of course, the dumbing-down of pop culture is nothing new, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t resist. Isn’t fighting the good fight what artists do? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with liking a kazoo; just don’t decry the symphony for being "too musical." Anyway – mostly just to maintain some tenuous grip – I started putting together a list of books I consider essential works for anyone with a serious interest in literature, especially in creating literature. I’d love to get some feedback. How does mine compare with yours? Is it longer? Thicker?

Let me rephrase that.

How does my list compare to your list? (Oh come on, we all have them. It’s just that most sane people don’t write them down.) What gems have I omitted? Make recommendations. Please. I know I’ve missed things. But if you come at me with Dan Brown or James Patterson, be prepared for violence.

I’ve tried to restrict myself to one title per author, just because the list got too unwieldy otherwise. Some are great thundering epics. Others are elegant little volumes that slip in like a knife blade. Criteria? A lot of people might say that a great book is one that changed the world. If that’s the case, all such lists would need to include works by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Sinclair Lewis (and possibly Radclyffe Hall), but in good conscience I can’t do that here. No, a book needs more than good intentions, more even than an important theme. I added and deleted INVISIBLE MAN three separate times. (No, not the Wells book.) A truly great novel – so far as my list is concerned – would be one I am personally enraptured by. Awestruck by. Challenged by. Inspired by. Forget changing society. For the moment, I’m more interested in books that changed me. All great art is a passionate force for evolution, personal and otherwise.

Anyway, here’s mine ... in a curious order all its own.

Watch it grow.

DHALGREN by Samuel R. Delaney
(Purely by coincidence, we happen to be discussing this in the Literary Darkness group.)
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
CALL IT SLEEP by Henry Roth
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
THE GOLEM by Gustav Meyrink
BY NIGHTFALL by Michael Cunningham
MOBY DICK by Herman Melville
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
MISS MACINTOSH, MY DARLING by Marguerite Young
NADJA by Andre Breton
THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov
AGAINST NATURE by J. K. Huysmans
NAKED LUNCH by William Burroughs
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
ON THE ROAD by Jack Keroac
(Capote's famous disdain notwithstanding.)
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT by Ernest Hemingway
ULYSSES by James Joyce
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Maddox Ford
THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
THE MARBLE FAWN by Nathaniel Hawthorn
THE LONGEST JOURNEY by E.M. Forster
DIFFICULT DEATH by Rene Crevel
AT SWIM – TWO-BIRDS by Flan O’Brien
AT SWIM, TWO BOYS by Jamie O’Neill
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt
A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
THW RAZOR’S EDGE by W. Somerset Maugham
NIGHTWOOD by Djuna Barnes
THE MINISTRY OF FEAR by Graham Greene
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
CONFESSIONS OF A MASK by Yukio Mishima
DELTA WEDDING by Eudora Welty
THE DOLLMAKER by Harriet Arnow
[Okay, I know people will scratch their heads over that one, but if one test of a great book is that it had a profound effect on the reader at an impressionable age, then this absolutely qualifies. So do THE CATCHER IN THE RYE and THE GRAPES OF WRATH.]
THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK by Doris Lessing
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
COUSIN BETTE by Honore de Balzac
IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME by Marcel Proust
EXTINCTION by Thomas Bernhard
DEATH SENTENCE by Maurice Blanchot
A SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION by Gustav Flaubert
THE BOOK OF DISQUIET by Fernando Pessoa
THE CASTLE by Franz Kafka
WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte
(If only for the exhausting passion.)
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
CLOSER by Dennis Cooper
GOING NATIVE by Stephen Wright
BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac Mccarthy
THE DWARF by Par Lagerkvist
BLOOD AND GUTS IN HIGH SCHOOL by Kathy Acker
THE OGRE by Michel Tournier

These titles frequently come up in discussion. The whole point of the Literary Darkness group I moderate here on Goodreads is – at least to my mind – that literary standards of excellence should also apply to genre writing. Some of the smartest people in the world will swear that the most goddawful writers are geniuses, simply because they enjoyed them as children. My advice is this: don’t be swayed by remembered pleasure. All too often enjoyment = entertainment = narcotic reading. Great literature, like great sex, requires some effort. If you’re going to just lie there…

I think perhaps I’d better abandon this metaphor as well. Here’s some other titles (more genre specific).

1984 by George Orwell
BLOODCHILD by Octavia E. Butler
THE KILLER INSIDE ME by Jim Thompson
NARROW ROOMS by James Purdy
THE DEMON by Hubert Selby, Jr.
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde
ON WINGS OF SONG by Thomas M. Disch
WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE by Shirley Jackson
THE EDGE OF RUNNING WATER by William Sloane
DEEP NIGHT by Greg F. Gifune
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
THE WORM OUROBORUS by E.R. Eddison
THE WOOD WIFE by Terri Windling
MYTHAGO WOOD by Robert Holdstock
HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Z. Danielewski
TOURS OF THE BLAC K CLOCK by Steve Erickson

Oh, did I mention it was all different genres? Sorry.

Jeez, I’m all out of breath here. The problem with a list like this is… knowing where to stop. Do I not mention Lawrence Durrell? And it seems weird not to include F. Scott Fitzgerald. Or at least Zelda. Or possibly Penelope. (Not related, but still.) How about Iris Murdock or Muriel Spark? Paul Bowles and Don DeLillo? Paul Theroux or Robert Creeley? Malcolm Lowry, Saul Bellow, John O’Hara, John Dos Passos, John Cheever? What about Pynchon? Irving and Updike? Heller? McMurtry? Flannery O’Connor or Toni Morrison? What about Marge Piercy? Langston Hughes? Doesn’t it all nourish the inner writer?

Okay, let me just keep going until smoke starts coming out of my ears. One last push. Top of my head. Bottom of my soul.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
HOPSCOTCH by Julio Cortazar
THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES by Robert Musil
THE AGE OF WONDERS by Aharon Appelfeld
DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Keostler
NIGHTS AT THE CIRCUS by Angela Carter
THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
MILK by Darcey Steinke
LOVING; LIVING; PARTY GOING by Henry Green
A BEND IN THE RIVER by V. A. Naipaul
THE RECOGNITIONS by William Gaddis
ASK THE DUST by John Fante

Okay, that’s it for now.

No, wait.

THE RETURN OF JEEVES by P. G. Wodehouse
[Because I figure if you’ve read something more than twenty times, it belongs somewhere on your list.]
LUCKY JIM by Kingsley Amis
[See above.]
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury
[Again, and in spades.]

Okay. At least that’s a start.

Additions, anyone?