MJ’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2012)

MJ’s comments from the Completists' Club group.

^ HP is one of his worst books. Anything from the '60s/'70s better.

Congrats!

Dostoevsky idolised Gogol above any other writer, there are similarities esp. in The Double and Notes.

Congratulations on your Rougon-Macquart completion. Quite an achievement. I am with Elizabeth on the choice of favourite.

Jonathan just got completionjacked.

You can! You may even rate the Terrible novels.

Congrats. I have to confess, I read thirty or so pages of Topless and found workmanlike prose and not very appealing content. If the choir insists, I might try another.

I probably shouldn't have told you that, it's not a dreadful book, only not on par with the others. Judge for yourself, young man!

Nice cover. I like the Dalkey one more, though. You should read his others, especially Yellow and Reckless.

BRAG: All Ishmael Reed's novels completioned. My short overview will be made available shortly.

Apart from the two Terribles, all Reed's novels are worth a read. Only one more to go for me before completionating . . . will order Louisiana Red now.

Have read 7/14. No plans to read Viktor Shklovsky or Russian Formalism so make mine 12/14 completion.

Wow, Jim . . . 300 is admirable. I only read 15 pages before ennui set in, despite the prose (which is nice, but not Proust-like gold [for those into Proust]) carrying me along. No idea who the ideal reader for this book is. Someone who can lose themselves in waves of indulgence for 1200 very large pages? (So Proust fans?)

That's the spirit . . .

I echo Tia's sentiments, except there are plenty of Dalkey books that have defeated me and have ruined my dream. The insanely boring Miss McIntosh, My Darling is one barrier, along with some other curios. Everything they publish nowadays seems to be golden . . .

Hi Malissa. This group is only sporadically active, but please feel free to potter around as usually someone pops up to discuss something at some point.

Wonderful, thanks for the info, David. Do you know if the quality of the translations is consistent? The book designs seem extremely pedestrian and photoshopped. Good that the work is being made available, though.

That's amazing, David. Quite an achievement.

A lot of the later works are unreadable, or at least preachy and bloated. But I still hope to complete the Rougon-Macquart Cycle. Good luck! This is quite a punishing challenge to undertake.

Congratulations!