Reading the 20th Century discussion

Happy new year one and all. It's time to nominate for our March 2025 group read


For March 2025 we invite you to nominate anything written in, or set in, the 1980s


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

Ooh, exciting! There are so many 'big' books from this decade that I've never got to...

I've just been having a mull and, having enjoyed many a reread in 2024, I'm diving in with perhaps the most 80s of all 80s books


Yep, Tom Wolfe’s brash 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities is often described as "the quintessential novel of the 80s". I remember loving it when I read it back in 1987 and would love to discover if it still wields the same power and resonance

It is, reportedly, a riot: a satirical novel about money, clothes, success, greed, racism, and corruption in New York City, an absolute nonsense whirlwind that was a major best-seller

I used to love Tom Wolfe's work and would relish the chance to discuss this 1980s behemoth with you all


The blurb...

The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 satirical novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City, and centers on three main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, and British expatriate journalist Peter Fallow.

The novel was originally conceived as a serial in the style of Charles Dickens' writings: It ran in 27 installments in Rolling Stone starting in 1984. Wolfe heavily revised it before it was published in book form. The novel was a bestseller and a phenomenal success, even in comparison with Wolfe's other books. It has often been called the quintessential novel of the 1980s.

I've never read that and would like to give it a go. I'd been thinking of Bret Easton Ellis who I've also never read.

But I'm going to nominate Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind (1985):

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

Great suggestions. I will nominate another 1980's monster, which I have never read although I have read other books by the author. This was his first novel, published in 1988.

The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst

Young, gay, William Beckwith spends his time, and his trust fund, idly cruising London for erotic encounters. When he saves the life of an elderly man in a public convenience an unlikely job opportunity presents itself - the man, Lord Nantwich, is seeking a biographer.

Will agrees to take a look at Nantwich's diaries. But in the story he unravels, a tragedy of twentieth-century gay repression, lurk bitter truths about Will's own privileged existence.

Continuing my exploration of Joyce Carol Oates, I'm going to nominate her first "gothic" novel, Bellefleur.

A wealthy and notorious clan, the Bellefleurs live in a region not unlike the Adirondacks [a rural, relatively unpopulated region of upstate New York, near where JCO grew up], in an enormous mansion on the shores of mythic Lake Noir. They own vast lands and profitable businesses, they employ their neighbors, and they influence the government. A prolific and eccentric group, they include several millionaires, a mass murderer, a spiritual seeker who climbs into the mountains looking for God, a wealthy noctambulist who dies of a chicken scratch.

Bellefleur traces the lives of several generations of this unusual family. At its center is Gideon Bellefleur and his imperious, somewhat psychic, very beautiful wife, Leah, their three children (one with frightening psychic abilities), and the servants and relatives, living and dead, who inhabit the mansion and its environs. Their story offers a profound look at the world's changeableness, time and eternity, space and soul, pride and physicality versus love. Bellefleur is an allegory of caritas versus cupiditas, love and selflessness versus pride and selfishness. It is a novel of change, baffling complexity, mystery.

Written with a voluptuousness and startling immediacy that transcends Joyce Carol Oates's early works, Bellefleur is widely regarded as a masterwork—a feat of literary genius.

Nigeyb wrote: "I've just been having a mull and, having enjoyed many a reread in 2024, I'm diving in with perhaps the most 80s of all 80s books


Yep, Tom Wolfe’s brash 1987 novel [book:The Bonfire of the Vanitie..."

I tried this years ago. I didn't make it very far. I think it just didn't appeal to me. If this is chosen I wish you better luck.

I loved it Jan, absolutely devoured it. It was a massive best seller when it came out and seemed to really catch the mood of the era. It must surely still rank as one of the defining novels of the 1980s as we might discover (or not) if it were to win.



Who else is nominating?



Nominations so far...

The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) by Tom Wolfe (nigeyb)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985) by Patrick Süskind (Roman Clodia)
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst (Susan)
Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates (Ben)

I really did not like the 80's. Even the big novels mostly failed to draw me then, and now it feels like we are living in the dystopia many of them projected.
I'm going to nominate A Confederacy of Dunces. I've not read it, but it's another of those big novels of the era that has been on my "someday I should get to this" list. I think by March I, for one, will be needing some comic relief.

Here's the GR summation:

Here is Ignatius Reilly: slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one, who is in violent revolt against the entire modern age, lying in his flannel nightshirt in a back bedroom on Constantinople Street in New Orleans, who between gigantic seizures of flatulence and eructations is filling dozens of Big Chief tablets with invective.

His mother thinks he needs to go to work. He does, in a succession of jobs. Each job rapidly escalates into a lunatic adventure, a full-blown disaster; yet each has, like Don Quixote's, its own eerie logic.

His girlfriend, Myrna Minkoff of the Bronx, thinks he needs sex.

Ignatius is an intellectual, ideologue, deadbeat, goof-off, glutton, who should repel the reader with his gargantuan bloats, his thunderous contempt, and one-man war against everybody: Freud, homosexuals, heterosexuals, Protestants, and the assorted excesses of modern times.

A tragicomedy, set in New Orleans.

I love A Confederacy of Dunces - absolutely fabulous read, though seems to divide readers


My spoiler free five star review....

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

I'll nominate E. L. Doctorow's World's Fair from 1985.

Takes place in 1939. New York is getting ready to host the World's Fair. New York is still dealing with horse-drawn wagons, street peddlers and hurdy gurdy men toiling the streets. Edgar Altschuler, aged 9, face4s conflict between his realist mother and dreamer father. A coming of age story. National Book Award Winner 1986.

I haven't read it yet but I imagine the outside world is invading the closed-in (?) views of NYC in 1939.

I've read several of Doctorow's books, others I'm in the middle of or haven't started yet. WF falls into the latter category for me. He once wrote that writing, for him, was like following your headlights on a dark unfamiliar road. You just go where the lights take you.

I think it might be fun to dispel the last of winter with a little trip to the American West, so I’d like to nominate Lonesome Dove.

Published in 1985, it won the Pulitzer for Fiction in 1986, and was turned into what I remember as a riveting mini-series in 1989. It’s also on the Guardian List of 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die, in the War and Travel category.

Wikipedia describes the premise as “ The novel, set in the waning days of the Old West centers on the relationships between several retired Texas Rangers and their adventures driving a cattle herd from Texas to Montana. The novel contains themes including old age, death, unrequited love, and friendship.”

It’s definitely a chunkster, though, at over 900 pages or 37 hours of listening. But if the story is exciting…

Renee wrote: "I think it might be fun to dispel the last of winter with a little trip to the American West, so I’d like to nominate Lonesome Dove..."

I read the first quarter of this a few years ago and resolved to go back to it. It's a classic novel of America.

I've wondered about Lonesome Dove as I've seen good reviews from friends. Gonna be a(nother) difficult choice this month!

Thanks all


I'll sort out the poll on Monday so still plenty of time to nominate

As soon as I saw the two (or 3) titles I yearn to read nominated here I stopped thinking about books I could suggest. What a great and diverse list. These great nominations are one of the reasons my TBR list never reduces.

I think Lonesome Dove saturated the American readers from the moment it was published and then when the adaptation consumed the whole family weekly on TV.
As always, I can’t wait to find out what I will be reading in March.

Was Lonesome Dove ever 'big' here? I think it's one of those books I'd never heard of till GR!

I was amazed when I just looked up the Wikipedia piece on this Lonesome Dove. Pulitzer Prize for the book, two Golden Globes on the adaptation, 18 Emmy nominations with 7 wins.
I tried to check out books sold in countries other than US but nothing came up immediately. Good reads wasn’t a thing in the 1980s, right?
My guilty confession, I have never read the book and have not watched a single episode of the adaptation. A friend told me she could not believe I hadn’t watch the shows.

Renee wrote: "I think it might be fun to dispel the last of winter with a little trip to the American West, so I’d like to nominate Lonesome Dove.

Published in 1985, it won the Pulitzer for Ficti..."

I loved the book. I have the film on DVD.

I read Lonesome Dove early in the 90's. The guy my housemate was dating (and later married) spoke very highly of it, and I'd noticed that he had high standards for his reading, so I took notice. I saw a few scenes of the TV adaptation, but not more.

I enjoyed Lonesome Dove enough that I read the first two volumes of the Berrybender Narratives.

Poll's up


Let's vote


https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...


Nominations so far...

The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) by Tom Wolfe (nigeyb)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985) by Patrick Süskind (Roman Clodia)
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst (Susan)
Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates (Ben)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (G)
World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow (Jan)
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Renee)

This is too difficult. I’m voting for one but I will be reading all of these great nominations over time.

Susan_MG wrote: "This is too difficult."

It is - I've abandoned by own nomination for Ben's!

Luckily I’m retired so I can read them all in time. The problem is there will be another group nomination and then things go awry.

Bellefleur raced into an early lead

Is it possible to change one's vote? I voted accidentally while trying to find additional info about a couple of the titles?

Definitely too many good choices this month.

Yes it is G. There's a change your vote option underneath the poll, just click on that


We tend to get a lot of vote changing as the poll shakes out

I was just looking at Bellefleur and notice it's not the cheapest to purchase in the UK. I expect I can get an inter library loan if I decide to read it. It does look good and I like what I've read of JCO

Did the prior reading of JCO here in the group influence us? I feel it did for me. I only became interested in her writing when we read her here and discussed so many aspects. But, if another of the nominations rises I will be drawn to read that too.

Ben is leading the JCO charge and her work has hit the spot with many of the RTTC massive

Nigeyb wrote: "Ben is leading the JCO charge and her work has hit the spot with many of the RTTC massive"

I'm in the middle of my first JCO, largely thanks to Ben. It's intense, but makes me want more.

I was initially curious about JCO because I recalled my mother reading several of her books in the 70's, when I was still living in my parents' home or bouncing back and forth between there and university. She died nearly 40 years ago, and I was curious about the books she engaged with.

I started last year with her collection of short stories in High Lonesome and I've been hooked since then, helped by RC and others in this group reading many of the stories alongside me. I'm working my way through her early tetralogy "Wonderland", written in the late 60's and early 70's (and thus possibly read by my mother) and am looking forward to progressing through her massive output. I love her style, her characters, her settings and the variety of her works and I feel completely at home with her vision of America. She is incredibly prolific (while also generating a worthwhile set of posts on X and Bluesky if you ignore her cats). I don't plan to read all her output, but there are enough gems to keep me busy for as long as I have to read.

Nigeyb is absolutely right. Bellefleur is expensive to buy in the UK (delivered cost £17 new on Amazon, £12 used through Abe Books) and it's not available on the London Library system or Open Library.

Full disclosure, in case that affects your choices.

Ben wrote: "Nigeyb is absolutely right. Bellefleur is expensive to buy in the UK"

Blast! Why are her books so hard to get hold of? I was browsing my local Waterstones earlier and the only JCO they have is Blonde.

Roman Clodia wrote: "Ben wrote: "Nigeyb is absolutely right. Bellefleur is expensive to buy in the UK"

Blast! Why are her books so hard to get hold of? I was browsing my local Waterstones earlier and the only JCO they..."

My sense is that she's not desperately popular in the UK but maybe that's unfair? My impression of her is that she's a particularly American, American writer, if that makes any sense.

There are quite a few that are available on the London Library system. But she has written so many books and many are out of print and are hard to find. A good number (but not Bellefleur) are available on the Open Library site and are available on used book sites. That's where I'm buying my copy of Bellefleur.

The novels and stories of hers I've read so far have a very strong sense of place in the US. But I don't think there is anything about her characters or themes that is exclusively American, other than as an antidote to the view that America is the City on a Hill, blessed above all other places.

Ben wrote: "There are quite a few that are available on the London Library system. But she has written so many books and many are out of print and are hard to find. A good number (but not Bellefleur) are avail..."

I suppose, thinking of 'We Were the Mulvaneys' there's a certain kind of family-centred, domestic narrative that I think of as very mainstream American, I can think of similar books by writers like Richard Ford, John Updike, Ann Tyler, Elizabeth Strout, all of which have a markedly different flavour to British/European narratives centred on family dynamics. And 'Blonde' centres on a peculiarly American notion of celebrity, mythic fame etc

Bellefleur even further ahead. A commanding lead.

I feel blessed for a moment that I am an American. That is, usually the authors of the U.K. are quite a bit costlier here, if they are available. My public library hasn’t had more than 1 or two of the British or Irish authors I want to read. I just had a Kindle book by a British author that I could see listed but it had a statement that it couldn’t be purchased in the US. No problem here with JCO.

I agree, she's a very American American novelist - but I think she's aware of that and is examining American culture with a deeply sceptical eye.

Her A Book of American Martyrs (2017) deals with the siege of abortion clinics before the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And her The Accursed suggests an alternative vision for America's 'original sin'.

Given that we're steeped in US culture, there's nothing alienating about her books but I agree - and think JCO would - that America is her great subject matter.

It looks a good book but too big as a book for me to carry around and not on kindle or Audible so will have to give it a miss if it wins. I think she just has such a huge number of books that a lot of early ones are no longer in print. Odd they are not on kindle though.

Not that it's any help, but I just discovered it's available as an e-book on Apple Books. But only in French and Spanish. Why?!!

She just has a vast body of work. Obviously, it isn't worth keeping them all in print or some have fallen out of favour. I have only read a couple by her, but at 700 pages, it will be a little too big for the commute and I am trying not to buy more physical books.

Perfectly understandable! I've had to institute a one-in-one-out rule for my physical books.

Just looked in my subscription library catalogue in Leeds and this isn't among the substantial number of novels they have by Oates . Happy to buy second hand if it wins as I've not yet read a novel by her that I dislike . She is so consistent .

It is very annoying that JCO's old books are not on Kindle. She's been on the whisper list for the Nobel prize for years and yet we can't easily get her books?

Not in my local library but I can get Bellefleur from the university library so I'm in if it wins.

Hester, on her consistency, I had a dip with a couple of her books a few years ago like the time travel one, but her recent stuff is back up to her best.

Still looking good for Bellefleur

Poll's up



About 36 hours left to vote/switch


https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...



Nominations...

The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) by Tom Wolfe (nigeyb)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985) by Patrick Süskind (Roman Clodia)
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst (Susan)
Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates (Ben)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (G)
World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow (Jan)
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Renee)

I'm changing my vote because much as I would like to read the Oates, I can't take on a 600 page book in March.

Bellefleur wins it


Thanks to everyone who got involved

I'll sort the post-poll admin later