We get it. Lonesome Dove is great. So is Blood Meridian. And East of Eden slaps hard.
Let's branch out a bit. What masterpiece do you feel like more people need to know about? What book would you like to see get its due (or maybe it had its due but younger people don't know about it)?
I'll start:
I think that Alice Munro's short stories are genius. She manages to capture the experience of reading an entire novel in just ~30 pages. Her writing doesn't use big words, but she is So. Damn. Smart. She really captures the subtleties of being human like nobody else I've ever read. I recommended Selected Stories.
If you can tolerate nature writing, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is mind-blowingly good. She's smart, funny, and writes with a beauty that regularly gives me chills. I've only encountered a few people who know and love this book, and they're always a special breed.
I also think Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey is a masterpiece.
by bonsaitreehugger
4 Comments
*The Hour of the Star* by Clarice Lispector
other than Station Eleven, which I think was pretty highly feted so doesn’t meet your criteria, the book that comes to mind as both great storytelling and literary richness is Richard Power’s Overstory. I don’t know if it was awarded but I certainly don’t see it mentioned much, and it’s a book that has really stayed with ne.
I’m so excited to see you mention Annie Dillard. Her writing is absolutely stunning. This is so silly, but I’m hesitant to even read Tinker Creek again for fear that the “magic” won’t be there anymore lol.
Women and Men by Joseph McElroy is up there with books like gravity’s rainbow and the recognitions but it is rarely talked about.
Stones Of Summer by Dow Mossman was published in 1972 and basically forgotten until Barnes and Noble reprinted it after an avid fan made a documentary about it in 2002.
Darconvilles Cat by Alexander Theroux.