Comments on: Nightwood, by Djuna Barnes

By: carlos

carlos — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:09:00 +0000

good book. if you like it, youll find you will read it again in some time.

By: whisperinggums

whisperinggums — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:35:55 +0000

Oh, you should read Wharton … Custom of the country is a great one, with one of the best named heroines I’ve seen – Undine Spragg! You get the picture as soon as you discover that!

By: whisperinggums

whisperinggums — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:28:30 +0000

Just found this post KfC – as I was overloaded by deadlines in early June and then headed off for ten blissful days in the warm Top End. Anyhow, I can totally agree with your recommendation of No great mischief. I’d like to read more McLeod but haven’t managed it yet.

By: Peasant life is a life committed completely to survival « Pechorin’s Journal

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:12:43 +0000

[...] blog, but recently Kevin (the blogger in question) did me a real favour. He started a comments thread in which you listed the last five books you’d read and he recommended a book to you that you [...]

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 16:52:33 +0000

Thanks, Isabella. An excellent recommendation.

By: Lisa Hill

Lisa Hill — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 06:16:41 +0000

Hey, now I’ve done really well – because I have Isabella’s intriguing suggestion, and five more from Kevin. I haven’t read any of your recommendations and shall begin hunting them out pronto!
Thanks, Kevin and Isabella!

By: Isabella

Isabella — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:04:42 +0000

If I may… Lisa’s list to me is simply screaming Kamouraska by Anne Hébert (neither early nor modernist, but…).

By: Isabella

Isabella — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:01:39 +0000

Thanks, Kevin. I’ve read a bunch of Ondaatje, but remarkably, not this one. And the Finzi-Continis is on my list of books to look out for (tho I can’t remember why!). Both these books are going in the pile of get-to-them-sooner-rather-than-later, along with Biblioracle’s suggestion of The Bell Jar.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 02:05:10 +0000

Hi Lisa: Not surprised that you know both of those. So, since I assume you also know The Double Hook, I’ll try:
1. Anything by Guy Vanderhaegge.
2. As For Me And My House, Sinclair Ross — you really have to like Canadian literature to read this. And if you know it, check out Frederick Phillip Grove.
3. The Underpainter, by Jane Urquhart — one of my favorite authors and this is my favorite book of hers.

And if none of those work — or you have read them all — I am willing to admit defeat.

By: Lisa Hill

Lisa Hill — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:56:40 +0000

Oh well done, Kevin, excellent choices, but no you’re not off the hook yet – because I’ve read both of those and thought they were terrific!
Now, how about a Canadian classic, something from the 19th century or early C20th perhaps? Or maybe a tricksy modernist? The earliest Canadian author I’ve read is Robertson Davies, (The Cornish Trilogy) and I don’t think I’ve ever read a modernist author from Canada…
Lisa