Talk Back

[jeffp]

OK... just to provoke a little writing here, I'm going to ask a couple of questions and I hope people will answer them. Certainly everyone who's participated in the book review forums should be able to respond, but these aren't easy questions, at least not for me:

1. You're asked to recommend the single best book you've ever read to a total stranger (so you don't know their reading an/or literary preferences). What single book is it and why? (Note: if your "single" best book is a series, I will accept that. I'm just trying to get people to pick a favorite, rather than saying "I can't pick just one, so here are 3" ... or 5... or 20 or whatever. Note also that I am asking why. You can pick something that is great literature, or that will change someone's life, or anything else, but tell us what your reason is as best you can.)
   
   
2. Same question but you're recommending a short story instead of a book.

I am still considering my own answers to those questions. It's not as easy as I thought it was when I first started pondering it. I'm hoping that some really interesting responses will show up here, and that they might lead to new reading that I would otherwise have missed.

I will post my own answer when I've got my thoughts worked out. Anyone else care to be first with a response?

[shaw]

1) Very tough. I'll go with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

2) Very easy. The Automatic Tiger by Kit Reed

[jeffp]

OK, but why?

[jeffp]

Well, since Doug hasn't answered my "Why" question, I thought I'd try my hand at my own answers here:

Best Novel: This is really hard for me, but whenever I reach out and look for the best novel I've read - the one that really grabs me by the guts and pins me down - I have only one answer: Dune by Frank Herbert. It was the book that taught me what a classic hero centered story is. It taught me about destiny, and making your own destiny. It introduced environmentalism and an ecological concern for an entire planet to millions of readers. I've read many good books over the years, but Dune simply stands apart in my head. I know it's not "Great Literature" as defined by the critics, but it works for me, and it works very, very well. I'm not so sanguine about all the follow on Dune books. Some are better than others, but none live up to the original. If you read only the first, I won't be upset.

Best Short Story: There are only two candidates in my experience: Arthur C. Clark's The Nine Billion Names Of God and Stephen R. Donaldson's Penance. Picking one is hard because I've read the first many times and the second only once. But I'm going to have to select Penance. It's a deeper story, with real character development. Clark's story is very good, and it has always stayed with me, but I think Donaldson is the better writer. If you want, you can find my review of that story here.

OK... time for someone else to respond. What are your favorites and why?

Oh, and Doug, you need to give us a "why" on your answers above, please!

[shaw]

1) Very tough. I'll go with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

I hate to do this but... http://dougshaw.com/Reviews/review17.html is my essay on the thing, which pretty much tells why I love it so

2) Very easy. The Automatic Tiger by Kit Reed

Hmmm... Not a word is wasted. And every time you think you know how it is going to go, it changes on you, and yet, at the end, the whole arc seems inevitable. I'm afraid to say a word because I read it with no information about it, and that is probably the best way

[jeffp]

OK... with some digging I found a short story collection that contains Automatic Tiger and have ordered it. I look forward to reading it, Doug.

[jeffp]

OK, fine. I wrote up something in response to Doug's favorite short story and put it here.

Maybe someone else will post on this thread, or start another one, and suggest their favorite short story and novel. I'm really curious about that.