21st Century Literature discussion

Pick one of your current in-progress reads (preferably fictional), let us know the title, and then describe the prose (sentence style/length, word usage, rhythm, etc.). How does this particular prose impact your reading?

I wish you had asked this question a few days ago when I was reading Jon Fosse - I think his sentence will end up spanning three whole books i.e. the whole of the Septology. Will answer properly when I have read a bit more of Mason & Dixon...

The Gospel of Eve by Rachel Mann. Stylistically it’s similar to Iris Murdoch and Donna Tartt. Due to the gothic undertones, it suits the book perfectly.

I’m also reading ten pages of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow a day. Well Pynchon’s prose is claustrophobic, encyclopedic with dashes of vulgarity and I am enjoying it.

I'm reading Emezi's Freshwater, with an enthusiastic review from Marc. The prose is a bit too florid and folksy so far, in ways that don't work for me; I'll probably try to get past p. 80 or so before deciding whether to abandon. I do appreciate the avoidance of easy explanations of the fantastic elements.

I'm binging nearly-forgotten author Barbara Comyns, and her prose is blowing me away--she has a completely unique, yet natural voice. She writes a style of prose that other writers strive for, and miss, when they're trying to evoke an odd, endearing, and genuine 1st-person voice.

Favorite so far: The Vet's Daughter.

I'm taking a lighter break from heavier reading with Or What You Will by Jo Walton. The writing is warm-hearted, curious, and maybe just a tad too twinkly for my taste, but not enough to DNF. One thing I love about Jo Walton (in the 2 books I've read) is that she is a such a bibliophile that she has her fictional characters talk about real books they love.

I am surprised how readable Mason & Dixon is so far, particularly compared with Gravity's Rainbow which is the only other Pynchon I have read. Yes, the style is deliberate 18th century pastiche, but most of the vocabulary is familiar, and the sentences are not over-long. The other stylistic idiosyncracy is that most nouns start with an upper case letter but that convention is still used in modern German.

I recently gave up on Booker-nominated The Shadow King for no other reason than the prose style. I was interested in the story, interested enough in the structure, but the prose was what I think of as "present tense lyrical," which I always find portentous and hard to get through.

Like Lark, I'm binging on Barbara Comyns, and also like Lark, I love her prose. In someone else it would sound whimsical, but in Comyns it is gently horrifying.

Nadine, I read my first Jo Walton this summer and loved it! (For the characterization more than the writing, but I didn't mind the writing).

Bill wrote: "I'm reading Emezi's Freshwater, with an enthusiastic review from Marc. The prose is a bit too florid and folksy so far, in ways that don't work for me; I'll probably try to get past..."

Emezi's book took me 1/3 or 1/2 to get into... And, I believe it was the prose style that just didn't gel with me right away.

All this Barbara Comyns love has peaked my interest!

Marc wrote: "Emezi's book took me 1/3 or 1/2 to get into... And, I believe it was the prose style that just didn't gel with me right away."

Thanks Marc. Your review also went into this a bit. I've abandoned the novel a little before page 100. While the prose style did change with the additional narrative voices, I just didn't have patience for all the family and teen soap operatics.

Emily wrote: "Nadine, I read my first Jo Walton this summer and loved it! (For the characterization more than the writing, but I didn't mind the writing).."

Emily, which book was it? The only other Walton I've read is Among Others, and I'm guessing the two I've read are not much like her other books?

This is such a great question! I adored Freshwater, especially the writing, and reading these critiques adds depth to my thoughts about it without changing my mind. Much appreciated!

Bill wrote: "Marc wrote: "Emezi's book took me 1/3 or 1/2 to get into... And, I believe it was the prose style that just didn't gel with me right away."

Thanks Marc. Your review also went into this a bit. I've..."

100 pages is a fair shake, especially for a book this size.

I, of course, asked this question, during what may be the only time this year I'm not currently reading any fiction. But I did just finish Iris Murdoch's The Bell over the weekend. Her prose has a kind of quick punchiness to it with kind of a light formality (good grief---that sounds about as useless as a wine review... all I need to do is throw some berry and oak references). There's a kind of formal "properness" to the tone and diction, but she weaves in a wonderfully quick pace and a lot of understated humor. Murdoch went on the completist list right after I read The Sea, The Sea (but that was also before I realized she wrote 26 novels!!!).

Nadine wrote: "Emily, which book was it? The only other Walton I've read is Among Others, and I'm guessing the two I've read are not much like her other books? "

It was Among Others that I read too. I then bought (but haven't read yet) My Real Children, which seems quite different to some of her others.

Emily wrote: "Nadine wrote: "Emily, which book was it? The only other Walton I've read is Among Others, and I'm guessing the two I've read are not much like her other books? "

It was Among Others that I read to..."

I got her Thessaly: The Complete Trilogy at a library sale, but it's so massive that I haven't been able to bring myself to try it yet.

I've moved on to Oyamada's The Hole. The prose style is light and breezy and chatty. Unfortunately, I'm getting tired of the profusion of domestic detail, mostly marginally connected with the central ideas of the book (if at all). For example, around page 20, we get several pages of a conversation in the bathroom between the protagonist and her co-worker, mostly about gluing rhinestones on nails. I'm about 10 pages from the end; neither the co-worker nor the rhinestones have reappeared, and seem unlikely to return.

I know a lot of readers don't mind this kind of chatter, so just ignore me if you're one of them.

Bill wrote: "I know a lot of readers don't mind this kind of chatter, so just ignore me if you're one of them....."

I think (know?) I just failed to understand the prose of this sentence?

Incidentally, I loved this question for this thread and just devoured all the comments, even as I realized I have only an inadequate vocabulary/literary framework to address the question, despite all that I have read! For example, what would I say about Geraldine Brook's Year of Wonders , with its extensive use of archaic English words and mostly period appropriate settings and characterizations played against a strong female protagonist more stereo-typically 1980's modern than one might anticipate meeting in 1600's mining-country England?