Ten books that have completely and utterly moved me to the core so that even now, when I look at the titles below, something reacts in my heart:
- Disgrace by JM Coetzee
- Holding The Man by Timothy Conigrove
- The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin
- Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- The Riders by Tim Winton
- Last Orders by Graham Swift
- Eminence by Morris West
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishigo
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Twenty-three things these books have in common (and I’ve been thinking about this for ages, years really, and for a long long time I had this list up on my wall and I’d add to it and take things off until now I think it might actually mean something):
- They’re all late twentieth-century literature
- They’re all set in relatively contemporary times (i.e. 1980s and beyond), except, perhaps, Brokeback Mountain, In Cold Blood, The Remains of the Day
- The main characters are all men, except those in The Blackwater Lightship
- They’re all written by men, except Brokeback Mountain
- They’re all about men, even The Blackwater Lightship in a roundabout way
- The writers are all Caucasian, except Kazuo Ishigo
- They’re all fiction, except In Cold Blood and Holding the Man
- They’re all set in the Western World
- They’re all dramas
- Only one of them is gay-lit per se: Holding the Man
- Most of the main characters have clear occupations: academic, schoolboy, cowboy, butler, priest
- They all understand their political context
- They all ask questions about nationhood, except The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
- The passage and complexity of time is very important to them
- Family – in the broadest sense – is at their heart
- They all have strong senses of place
- Apart from Brokeback Mountain, they’re all single point-of-view narratives – simple
- They’re also all relatively straight-forward in terms of structure, but they lead the reader into tough and dark terrain: murder, mental illness, racism, religion, homophobia, right-wing ideologies, death, grief, the weight of history…but there’s also a whole lot of love
- They’re all driven by clear ‘what ifs’ e.g. Eminence: what if the Pope-in-waiting was in fact an atheist
- The prose is accessible, sometimes understated, but always beautiful
- The writers appear to be burning to find something out through the writing of their works
- There’s an overt sense of warmth and humanity – this is their true power
- My life would be less without them
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November 2, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Chantal Spit
Unbelievable! That’s a quite interesting and impressive study, Nigel!
Thanks for sharing!
November 2, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Nigel Featherstone
Hi Chantal, thanks heaps – love that feedback. It’s always interesting to ask what the value is for favourite-book lists. Perhaps, at the very least, it’s just about sending people off to hunt some of these things down?
November 2, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Gabrielle Bryden
Fantastic blog post and analysis Nigel – I might have to do the same 😉 My list looksa lot different than yours (lots of prison books in mine for some reason eg., Papillion, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like all your books (I just don’t have time to read everything). But In Cold Blood is awesome, as is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. I like a single point of view narrative as well.
November 3, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Nigel Featherstone
Hi Gabe, thanks for your thoughts, as always. And I’d totally love to read your list. Ah, lots of prison books for you – very interesting. It makes me think that I should do a follow-up post, scrutinising the themes better, teasing out those deeper commonalities.
November 6, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
whisperinggums
Great list Nigel … Sorry I’m late, have been on the road as you know but am almost home. We are lounging in Rutherglen at the moment.
Love your analysis … Must do that about my tops one day. Several of yours are books I love … And Disgrace would likely be in my top. It’s one of those books you just can’t forget. Remains of the day is also right up there for me. I also loved In cold blood and Curious incident. The riders wouldn’t be my top Winton … Though I like Winton. Two I’ve seen but haven’t read …Last orders and Brokeback mountain. Have always though I’d like to read them.
I would though have more women writers … Definitely Austen … And most likely Atwood and Wharton and Jolley. I’d also have Camus I reckon. But, stopping at ten is so hard isn’t it?
November 6, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Nigel Featherstone
Hi Sue, lovely to hear your response.
Re. ‘The Riders’ by Winton, I know that I’m off-beam here – it rarely comes up as a popular title of his, but I love it. I think it’s got a fantastic ‘what if’, the writing is perfect-pitch, and I appreciate the bravery of the ending, though I know many people who’ve been tempted to throw the book across the room in frustration and how it comes together…or doesn’t.
I’d love to know what you think of ‘Brokeback Mountain’. I read it when it first came out as a tiny, stand-alone novella (huh!) and was blown away, particularly as ‘The Shipping News’ frustrated me – now THAT was a book I wanted to throw across the room. Even though the movie hyped up the story, ‘Brokeback’ still has the most magical, musical, perfect prose imaginable – it really is a miracle, that piece of writing.
Ah Austen – that’s where we diverge, don’t we! But I need some Atwood, Wharton and Jolley in my life. Camus too. Thanks for pointing me in these directions.
November 6, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
whisperinggums
Lol re Austen … I have faith you’ll see the light one day. My brother finally did around the age of 50!
Re The riders, I didn’t feel as negative as many I know did, but it just seemed a little more pat than his other books. I can’t remember the ending though! Am I awful?
November 6, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Gabrielle Bryden
haha I wanted to throw the Shipping News across the room too – my good friend insisted I read it and I only persisted to the end because of her!
November 6, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Nigel Featherstone
Hi again Sue, okay, perhaps I should give old Austen another go. Where would you recommend I start??
And that’s very interesting that you can’t remember the ending of ‘The Riders’ – perhaps you’ve blocked it from your memory!
November 7, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Nigel Featherstone
Oh Gabe, the bloody Shipping News (which, being halfway through a vodka, I typed as ‘the bloody Shopping News’) – I’d hide the book, told my partner not to tell me where it is, but then I’d hunt it down and keep reading, so I’d hide it again, only to find it again. It wasn’t that I actually wanted to finish it, only that I always feel obliged to finish a novel. In the end the whole ‘hide this book away from me thing’ won in the end – I didn’t finish it. BUT ‘Brokeback Mountain’ on the other hand. What an extraordinary, extraordinarily brilliant piece of writing. Rather ironically, I’ve just gone looking for it…but can’t find it. Oh no!
November 7, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Gabrielle Bryden
bwhahahahaha Not the Shopping News 😉 I must read Brokeback Mountain then.
November 8, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Tristan
Hi Nigel. Would you believe it, the only thing I’ve read on your list is In Cold Blood (which was a smashing book). But I do know what you mean; I recently read The Vivisector and there was a part – specifically, the part just after Hurtle discovers Olivia Davenport is Boo Hollingrake and sees a Boudin on the wall of her house, the same Boudin that was at his adoptive parents’ house and that he dared to touch when he was alone with it as a child and made him want to be an artist at all – that completely and utterly moved me. It simply bowled me over. It doesn’t happen often, but I think it’s one of the main reasons why I read at all.
November 9, 2012 at 9:16+00:00Nov
Nigel Featherstone
Hi Tristan, great response – to both the list and ‘The Vivisector’. I haven’t read that White, but by the sounds of it I really should. Thanks heaps for the tip. I think of all the books in my list, I’d recommend ‘Disgrace’ to you. It simply works on so many levels, and the writing is extraordinarily precise. Grim, but also strangely beautiful….in a harrowing way.
June 14, 2013 at 9:16+00:00Jun
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