Fiction

My Desert Island Books (Contemporary)

My Desert Island Books (Classics)

Other Great Writers

My Brother Tim's Top Ten Latin American Novels

1. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Hundred Years of Solitude.
   Wild demented storytelling. A book about family, politics, the human condition (solitude), the nature of male and female. Poetic, earthy, surreal and hilarious.
   See also: Autumn of the Patriarch / Love in the Time of Cholera
   "A Garcia Marquez Page"
   
2. Gene Wolfe: The Book of the Long Sun (Nightside the Long Sun; Lake of the Long Sun; Calde of the Long Sun; Exodus from the Long Sun; On Blue's Waters).
   A mixture of Proust and Isaac Asimov, with Chestertonian Catholic symbolism thrown in. Unforgettable characters pursue their strange fates in a monumental, culturally intricate world that is a ship. Wolfe meditates on the horrors of politics and war, on the demands of pursuing peace, on Greco-Roman sacrifice, on the humanity of animals, on the relations of male and female, on revelation and computers, on the theology of the Outsider.
   See also: The Book of the New Sun (The Shadow of the Torturer; The Claw of the Concilator; The Sword of the Lictor; The Citadel of the Autarch; The Urth of the New Sun) / Soldier of the Mist; Soldier of Arete / Free Live Free
   "A Wolfe Page"
   The Whorl -- Archives of a Mailing List devoted entirely to The Book of the Long Sun
   
3. John Irving: A Prayer For Owen Meany.
   A grotesque hilarious and heart-breaking defense of faith. "An Irving Page"
   
4. Ursula Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness.
   A haunting examination of the nature of male and female; a gripping tale of survival on an ice world; an unflinching look at the totalitarian state; a Taoist meditation on opposites.
   See also: The Lathe of Heaven / Buffalo Gal Won't You Come Out Tonight
   "A Le Guin Page"
   
5. John Le Carre (David John Moore Cornwell): Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
   I've read Tinker Tailor six times at least. Le Carre is the Balzac of the modern spy novel. See also: The Honourable Schoolboy
   "A Le Carre interview"
   
6. Borges: Fictions.
   Magnificent critiques of simple, obvious "reality."
   See also: The Aleph / Collected Fiction
   "A Borges Page"
   
7. Robertson Davies: Fifth Business.
   Funny and very strange. These characters stick with you. This book treats: magic, saints, myth vs. history, morally loathesome people, Christianity, Christian hypocrites, vengeance, madness, the unlived life.
   "A Davies Page"
   "A Davies Bio"
   
8. P.G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse: Right Ho Jeeves.
   Wonderful lunacy.
   "A Wodehouse Page"
   "A Wodehouse Bibliography"
   
9. Powell: A Dance to the Music of Time.
   A twelve-volume novel that is a comic novel and at the same time very serious.
   "A Powell Site"
   
10. Shaara: The Killer Angels.
    A moving look at some of the main characters of the battle of Gettysburg. Shows that beyond good guys and bad guys is tragedy for everyone in war.
11. Flannery O'Connor: Short Stories
    Hilarious and frightening examinations of fallen people receiving Christian grace.

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DESERT ISLAND BOOKS: Classics

1. Dickens: The Pickwick Papers See also: David Copperfield / Great Expectations
   "A Dickens Page"
2. Kipling: Short Stories / Kim / The Jungle Books
   "A Kipling Page"
   "A Kipling Page"
3. Cervantes: Don Quixote
   
4. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens): Huckleberry Finn See also: Tom Sawyer
   "A Twain Page"
5. Marcel Proust: The Remembrance of Things Past
   "A Proust Page"
6. Cao Xueqin: The Dream of the Red Chamber (aka The Story of the Stone )
   
7. Hugo: Les Miserables
   
8. Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday See also: Stories
   "A Chesterton Page"
9. Maupassant: Stories
10. Chekhov: Stories
11. Stevenson: Stories "A Stevenson Page"