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Brilliant contemporary literature suggestions?

I third the recommendations of Kawabata and Murakami, second Palahniuk, and add David Foster Wallace - especially Infinite Jest, if you feel strong enough to take it.
 
One book that I absolutely fell in love with is Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart. Beautiful prose, an engaging plot, and a very unusual protagonist. When I finished the book, I cried because I thought it was over... until I found Kushiel's Chosen.

I can't say enough about this book... so I'll shut up.... But please if you want a sumptuous morsels of lust, murder, mystery and fantasy all rolled into one... please delve into this book!
 
I've recently read a couple of Palahniuk's books and his mind must be a freaky place to be. If his first books weren't odd enough he's got a new one out about an aging porn queen wanting to have sex with 600 men in one day. He certainly fits your "surreal, absurdist, unconventional read" criteria.
 
jomar said:
I've recently read a couple of Palahniuk's books and his mind must be a freaky place to be. If his first books weren't odd enough he's got a new one out about an aging porn queen wanting to have sex with 600 men in one day. He certainly fits your "surreal, absurdist, unconventional read" criteria.
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I put him in the category of people who write really good horror that you have to look for outside of the horror section :)

"Guts" from "Haunted" (sort of shared short story compilation) made me feel like demented imps were playing tug-of-war with my small intestines.
 
jomar said:
I've recently read a couple of Palahniuk's books and his mind must be a freaky place to be. If his first books weren't odd enough he's got a new one out about an aging porn queen wanting to have sex with 600 men in one day. He certainly fits your "surreal, absurdist, unconventional read" criteria.
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You haven't spent much time in Miami Beach, have you.
 
Lovely little story-lettes of a few pages each, great for pre-bedtime reading and inspired dreams:

Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams

http://www.amazon.com/Einsteins-Dre...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214176411&sr=8-1

It's billed as a novel, and there's a basic narrative, but the individual 'dreams' can be read out of context, like short stories, and work just as well. Sweet, eerie, poignant poetic.

There is a place where time stands still. Raindrops hang motionless in air. Pendulums of clocks float mid-swing..."
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manyeyedhydra said:
I put him in the category of people who write really good horror that you have to look for outside of the horror section :)
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Your right ! I like that. :D

"Guts" from "Haunted" (sort of shared short story compilation) made me feel like demented imps were playing tug-of-war with my small intestines.
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That whole book was sort of like that.

shereads said:
You haven't spent much time in Miami Beach, have you.
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Hmmm...there was that one time I was on Miami Beach and saw a homeless dude wearing an American flag speedo eat leftover McDonald's from a trash can then saunter over to some nearby babes and hit on them. Does that count?
 
Stacy Richter - two short story collections: My Date With Satan on Scribner, and Twin Study on Counterpoint. One of her stories is about a dog that becomes a famous multimedia artist (mostly dirt and sticks.) Her writing combines unlikely characters with heartrending emotions in common situations bordering on the surreal.

T.C. Boyle writes similar stuff, perhaps a bit more surreal sometimes, but there's something about Stacy's writing that sticks with you long after you've put the book down. (Perhaps part of it is the locale. She has spent some time in Tucson, and sets many of her stories here.)
 
For surreality, it's tough to beat the island of tree-dwelling meerkats in Life of Pi by Yann Martell.

WTF Quotient: 9
 
DeeZire said:
One of her stories is about a dog that becomes a famous multimedia artist (mostly dirt and sticks.)
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:D

Was there a photo-book by any chance? I either saw one at Barnes & Noble, or dreamed I did, that featured artistic black and white shots of this dog's stick arrangements.
 
Varian P said:
I tend to avoid contemporary literature. Every time someone suggests something published after 1970 or so and I bite, I'm almost inevitably disappointed (can't stomach Rushdie, thought "Running with Scissors" was crap, as was "Blindness," though I enjoyed "Neuromancer' somewhat and I do love Pelevin).

Essentially, I crave a more surreal, absurdist, unconventional read than my usual fare (Dostoyevsky, Zola, Camus, Gogol). I want to expose my brain to some delightfully twisted post-modern or contemporary writing, and have no idea where to start.

Any assistance from my erudite and adventurous fellow Litizens will be accepted with gratitude!
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I share your book tastes and aversion to "modern" writing. In a similar literary doldrums the other month I was recommended the weird, dreamlike work of Haruki Murakami. You may like it.


E2A: I just saw that in an above post Neon recommends Murakami's Norwegian Wood, which I second.
 
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Varian P said:
I tend to avoid contemporary literature. Every time someone suggests something published after 1970 or so and I bite, I'm almost inevitably disappointed (can't stomach Rushdie, thought "Running with Scissors" was crap, as was "Blindness," though I enjoyed "Neuromancer' somewhat and I do love Pelevin).

Essentially, I crave a more surreal, absurdist, unconventional read than my usual fare (Dostoyevsky, Zola, Camus, Gogol). I want to expose my brain to some delightfully twisted post-modern or contemporary writing, and have no idea where to start.
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Ok, Varian - what's your take? Personally? I can't think of absurdists beyond maybe Jean Genet or Sarte. Post-modern writing is easy to come by these days, but absurdist writing in the 21st century? I can't help you because I'm absurdly old school.
 
I echo endorsements for Pratchett and Alexie.

I'll raise you Mark Saltzman. I loved "Iron and Silk" and "Laughing Sutra"

Christopher Moore is wonderful, start with Bloodsucking Fiends.

*bounces up and down and waves at Varian after being responsible and saying something on topic*
 
manyeyedhydra said:
"Guts" from "Haunted" (sort of shared short story compilation) made me feel like demented imps were playing tug-of-war with my small intestines.
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I was reading it on a hot day in a public bus and i swear, i almost passed out.
The only other book that did that to me was De Sade's 120 days of sodom (a passage near the end).

And yes, most of the book is like that.
 
*tacks on another note*

Tim Dorsey's books - anything that has Serge Storms in it. One of my favorite characters ever.

Pratchett and Gaiman - "Good Omens"
 
lesbiaphrodite said:
I don't think much that was written past 1940 has been very good. Just my opinion.
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How can you know until you've read it all?

A few years ago, while on vacation, I met a very old man whose son and daughter-in-law had brought him along on their trip. He seemed kind of out-of-it, until I asked him about his career as an architect. Then he just lit up, and was sharp as nails. When I asked him if he had a favorite period or style, I expected him to answer out of nostalgia for his own past. He surprised me.

"The best architecture is always contemporary - an expression of its own time."
 
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