Reading the 20th Century discussion
Archive
>
Group Reads -> February 2024 -> Nomination thread (wild card month won by The Secret History by Donna Tartt)
Mod
A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)
by
John Irving
It's been decades since I read anything by John Irving but I have fond memories of reading his best known books in the 80s and 90s.
So far as I can recall I was quite taken with A Prayer for Owen Meany and would be very interested to see how it stands up through a 21st century prism
I feel the same way about Armistead Maupin who falls into the same category (but that's another nomination for another day).
Here's more about A Prayer for Owen Meany....
Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul is both extraordinary and terrifying. At moments a comic, self-deluded victim, but in the end the principal, tragic actor in a divine plan, Owen Meany is the most heartbreaking hero John Irving has yet created.
Given this complete freedom, I will nominate a book I've always wanted to read. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I understand the Martians are a "stand-in" for the American Indians.The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.
The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.
But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them – and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.
Mod
Another encounter with RB is mighty tempting
Thanks Ben
Mod
The Constant Gardener is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. The novel opens in northern Kenya with the gruesome murder of Tessa Quayle--young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect among his own colleagues, but a target for Tessa's killers as well.
A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, John le Carre portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In The Constant Gardener he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy as Justin Quayle--amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat--discovers his own natural resources, and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.
This is not one of his Cold War books but it's John le Carré - there's always lots to discuss!
Mod
I'll nominate Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby. I'd enjoyed her previous book, The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History. Known as encephalitis lethargica, it disappeared as quickly as it came. But deadly while it stayed between 1916 and 1927. The book, set in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s, it follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and insane asylums, as a group of patients discover that the worst thing is not dying from sleeping sickness, but surviving it.
Although I thought I had a cousin in 1960s Ontario who had sleeping sickness. She didn't die from it, if that's what she had. I suppose by that time maybe they had drugs that would help one survive it.
Mod
In the long hot summer of 1939 Britain is preparing for war. But on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind: Mrs Pretty, the widowed farmer, has had her hunch proved correct that the strange mounds on her land hold buried treasure. As the dig proceeds against a background of mounting national anxiety, it becomes clear though that this is no ordinary find ... and soon the discovery leads to all kinds of jealousies and tensions.
John Preston's recreation of the Sutton Hoo dig - the greatest Anglo-Saxon discovery ever in Britain - brilliantly and comically dramatizes three months of intense activity when locals fought outsiders, professionals thwarted amateurs, and love and rivaly flourished in equal measure.
I loved John Preston's non-fiction A Very British Scandal and Fall, so I would like to try this earlier work.
Mod
Mod
I'm the opposite as it was the first JLC that I finished. I'd tried a couple of his other non-Cold War books but they were odd choices, the only ones available in the library, like Single & Single and I didn't understand the fuss. This was the breakthrough book and then I discovered Smiley...
Mod
"Ooh, good choice! My archaeologist friends have recommended this.
Mod
Mod
Definitely - there've been lots of books recently about sleep: I've got my eye on Sleepless. I don't have full insomnia which sounds horrific, but can struggle to wind my mind down enough to sleep during the week.
Mod
A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by John Irving (Nigeyb)
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (Ben)
The Constant Gardener by John le Carré (Roman Clodia)
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby (Jan)
The Dig by John Preston (Susan)
Roman Clodia wrote: "Susan wrote: "Thanks, RC. Jan's choice is interesting too. I remember reading The Family that Couldn't Sleep and finding it such a fascinating subject."Definitely - there've been lot..."
Chronic insomnia is no fun. I've had it all my life, as have almost everyone in my family. I was the only kid in the 8th grade with dark circles under my eyes. That was when I discovered I was in company with the rest of my family, saving my mother. They say it is not genetic but you couldn't prove it by us. It is not constant however. It goes in spurts.
Insomnia is torture, yes. I feel I can understand elderly people who have trouble sleeping despite being tired and seek out euthanasia to end their torture from it.
Kit wrote: "Insomnia is torture, yes. I feel I can understand elderly people who have trouble sleeping despite being tired and seek out euthanasia to end their torture from it."The best thing about being retired is that I don't have to adhere to hours anymore. I no longer (usually) have to appear places at specific times.
Jan C wrote: "Kit wrote: "Insomnia is torture, yes. I feel I can understand elderly people who have trouble sleeping despite being tired and seek out euthanasia to end their torture from it."The best thing abo..."
sounds great. Set your own schedule :)
Mod
We'd welcome more nominations for anything set or written in the twentieth century. If it's your first time and perhaps you're not feeling confident please go right ahead.
Hi . I'm new to the group so thank you for the encouragement Nigelb. I'd like to suggest The Railway Station Man by Jennifer Johnston (1984). I've read How Many Miles to Babylon? and Shadows on our Skin , both of which I felt were delicately observed with excellent dialogue and it's time I read another
Mod
And a warm welcome to you
Looking forward to many happy future discussions
Mod
Nominations....
A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by John Irving (Nigeyb)
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (Ben)
The Constant Gardener by John le Carré (Roman Clodia)
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby (Jan)
The Dig by John Preston (Susan)
The Railway Station Man (1984) by Jennifer Johnston (Hester)
Mod
Mod
I'm keen to read The Secret History too
Any more nominations?
I'll get the poll up over the weekend so still time
Nominations....
A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by John Irving (Nigeyb)
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (Ben)
The Constant Gardener by John le Carré (Roman Clodia)
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby (Jan)
The Dig by John Preston (Susan)
The Railway Station Man (1984) by Jennifer Johnston (Hester)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt (Stephen)
Mod
I am fine with it as a nomination and if it doesn't win the poll then a buddy read would work too.
Mod
There are so many good nominations already, but I'll also toss in Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouologuem, tr. Ralph Manheim. After falling out of print for several years, Other Press in the US has recently published a handsome paperback, alongside its publication of The Most Secret Memory of Men: A Novel. Bound to Violence is a fascinating if flawed novel, full of discussion points from plagiarism to reactions against the Négritude movement in 1960s Paris to the role of Malian fiction in Francophone literature.
Mod
We love a last minute nomination ❤️🔥
Mod
After a bumper crop of nominations it’s now time to vote...
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...
Nominations....
A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by John Irving (Nigeyb)
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (Ben)
The Constant Gardener by John le Carré (Roman Clodia)
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby (Jan)
The Dig by John Preston (Susan)
The Railway Station Man (1984) by Jennifer Johnston (Hester)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt (Stephen)
Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouologuem (David)
Mod
Mod
Mod
Mod
I loved Prayer, for Owen Meany when I read it a few years back, I've postponed my reading of The Secret History in case it wins, as you say Nigeyb, spoilt for choice.
Went for The Dig but was torn between that and Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries. I have been to Sutton Hoo so that would be interesting , but also when Co-vid struck there was a lot of talk about pandemics happening every 100 years, and this was cited.
Mod
You haven't voted yet, Stephen?
Mod
I think I read Martian Chronicles when I was still in school. I ripped through much of Bradbury then.
Mod
Mod
The Secret History by Donna Tartt - 5
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury - 3
The Dig by John Preston - 3
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby - 1
Bound to Violence by Yambo Ouologuem - 1
A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by John Irving
The Constant Gardener by John le Carré
The Railway Station Man (1984) by Jennifer Johnston
Mod
Mod
Such an eclectic list of nominees. I want to read them all. I did vote for just 1 but wasn’t easy.
Mod
The Secret History
by
Donna Tartt
The original American campus novel. When Richard Papen joins an elite group of clever misfits at his New England college, it seems he can finally become the person he wants to be. But the moral boundaries he will cross with his new friends - and the deaths they are responsible for - will change all of their lives forever. The Secret History recounts the terrible price we pay for mistakes made on the dark journey to adulthood.
Reading the 20th Century
Books mentioned in this topic
The Secret History (other topics)Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries (other topics)
The Dig (other topics)
The Most Secret Memory of Men: A Novel (other topics)
Bound to Violence (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Donna Tartt (other topics)Ralph Manheim (other topics)
Yambo Ouologuem (other topics)
Donna Tartt (other topics)
Molly Caldwell Crosby (other topics)
More...
With that in mind we're trialling something new
Going forward we'll rotate between a wild card month (anything set or written in the twentieth century), a decade (anything set or written in a specific decade of the twentieth century), or a twentieth century classic (a classic book written in the twentieth century)
February 2024 is a wild card month
So please feel free to nominate anything set or written in the twentieth century
Please supply the title, author, a brief synopsis, and anything else you'd like to mention about the book, and why you think it might make a good book to discuss.
Happy nominating