I read a short story by Farris in The New Yorker and thought his style was very much like mine--he tells a tragedy with humor. I immediately checked out this first novel of his.It is hilarious, insightful, and a real page-turner. It gives a glimpse to the bitter world of advertising business during layoffs.
I met Phillip Margolin when he came to give a lecture about novel writing at school. He was a very nice guy, and I found his lecture really helpful. This novel of his is the one recommended for those who aren't familiar with his work, which was why I bought it and got it signed by him. Like most mystery/thriller pulp fictions what-do-you-call-it, it moves at a fast pace and keeps you entertained. Maybe in the future I'll write about what I learned from his lecture.
I loved Anne Rice's The Lives of the Mayfair Witches series, which was why I wanted to give her vampire chronicles a chance. I thought it was a bit slow, and her writing isn't nearly as good as it would become many years later, but the novel was still interesting, raising a lot of questions about spirituality and immortality.
A professor asked during one of my classes if anybody had read this Latin-American masterpiece, and half the class raised their hands. I knew right then that I had to read this book soon. Judge me all you want, throw shit at me if you must, but I thought it was boring as fuck.
Augusten Burroughs has never disappointed me. I enjoyed his memoirs Running with Scissors and Dry. This one is a series of short, autobiographical essays that are hilarious and highly entertaining. Read it yourself, or check out the audio version and listen to Burroughs read it to you.
You can probably tell that the books I've listed here are really different from each other. I categorize them as the non-classics, as opposed to the classics, which I will talk about in the next post.
COMING UP:
Virginia Woolf, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Henrik Ibsen, and William Shakespeare.
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