Hey, I’m looking for something extremely well thought out and carefully constructed, something ambitious that deals with multiple themes. Something that shows the author did their absolute best to create something incredible. Fiction or nonfiction.
For example, I read Ragtime by Doctorow at university and thought it was insanely clever, ambitious, and also entertaining. I really thought it was genius. I don't know if I would feel the same now, years later, but it really showed me then what literature can achieve.
Do you have tips for books that you consider genius?
by Yeahyeahyeagh
3 Comments
pachinko!
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury is exactly this. Written by a true artist with the typewriter and is a bunch of short stories that tie together so perfectly. First author I have read where I know for a fact I could never replicate a single sentence he writes.
Peter Temple – Truth, and The Distant Shore.
He’s such an economical writer, he says in two sentences that most writers need paragraphs for. He creates terrific environments, plots and characters that ring absolutely true. His dialog is perfect, and the story sounds great in your head as you read it.
He won the Miles Franklin. He could have won more. My favorite writer.