1) Invisible Cities by Italo CalvinoI've read the ones in bold print and will add the rest to my nearly unmanageable list of books to be on the look-out for. I had the Bulgakov book years ago when The Elder Son was interested in all things Russian, but I gave it to him when he moved out. I've seen Smilla's Sense of Snow in the bookstore, but that was a while ago. I'm familiar with Koko Abe. I've never heard of the rest of these. Sometimes when I see these lists I feel like I've been living under a rock. So many books! So many books I've never even heard of! So many authors I'm completely unfamiliar with. I'd need to live hundreds of years to even make a dent in them.
2) The Tin Drum by Günter Grass
3) Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
4) Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
5) Secret Rendezvous by Kobo Abe
6) Beloved by Toni Morrison
7) Stories by Karen Russell
8) Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg
9) In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
10) Golden Days by Carolyn See
HT: SF Signal
Posts
Once again, 0 for 10.
ReplyDeleteAlas.
--A Pal
i'm just 3 for 10. i like lists, but wow! so many books, so little time, as they say
DeleteI'm curious do you agree that Beloved could be called sff. It's the only one I had even heard of and I wouldn't have guessed it could fit the category.
ReplyDeletei consider beloved a ghost story but not "horror", so i'd have some sympathy categorizing it as dark fantasy maybe? or maybe "gothic"? i agree, definitely not science fiction.
Deleteno, i've changed my mind, i'm not comfortable calling it "dark fantasy". that leaves me at "gothic". hmmm...
Deletehow about you? what would you classify it as?
Having not read it I was just going by reviews, the reviews seemed to describe a melodrama.
Deleteoh, it's a melodrama, all right. it's been ages since i read it, but i thought of it as a ghost story then. i've got my copy shelved with the general fiction.
DeleteI've heard that "A Handmaid's Tale" is another one that is mildly well-known in mainstream circles. There are others, but I don't recall and they also don't match this list. Do you know when the above list was compiled? Mine I refer to was in "The Secret History of Science Fiction" published in the last decade, an anthology that actually doesn't have much to do with it's title.
ReplyDeletethis list is current. that blog post is from june of this year, and i think the list was formulated for that post.
Deletei don't think of "handmaid's tale" as anything but science fiction, no matter what atwood says about squid in space ;)
I have just read Hoeg´s Smilla etc. I remember thinking it was a great book until the second half, when it turned into some hollywoodish action adventure. Not long after, they made a hollywoodish action adventure of it. And Julia Ormond was totally wrong in that role... I don´t remember any fantasy or SF, but then it was a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteI haven´t read The tin drum, but it made a smashing film.
Personally, I have changed my attitude towards my reading list. I now think of it as a list of *possible* choices, not must-reads, which I used to do. I am much happier now.
i believe some writers aren't really writing for the reading public; they're writing for potential screen writers ;)
Deleteit's been ages since i read tin drum, and i haven't seen the film.
i get some great suggestions from reading lists. i discovered reading lists as a teen and used to check off those "great books of western civilization" with great gusto as i read them. i agree with the attitude of choice as opposed to must-read.
Ha, I never thought of the Tin Drum as fantasy.
ReplyDeletei don't remember any fantasy elements in tin drum, but i read it so long ago and didn't particularly like it. it was one of the books i used to read parts of aloud to the kids to illustrate prose styles i found annoying. lol
DeleteI read 1,2,6 and 8. Didn't think of them as SFF. I didn't think I read any SFF but now it seems I do/did.
ReplyDeleteDarla
lol, i can see classifying the calvino as fantasy and beloved as a ghost story.
Deletesometimes i wish people who make up these lists would state what they think science fiction/fantasy/speculative fiction _is_. i think we're working from different points of view. i like picking up books shelved in the literary fiction section that i've heard have fantasy elements and seeing if i agree.