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Original poster

The most under-rated books you have read - recommendations please

112 replies

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 09/11/2010 18:31

OK - they are doing overrated books over in AIBU - let's do under-rated because I'm bored of being negative.

These are my favourites that need dusting off and distributing to everyone instead of the usual McEwan / Franzen / Orange / Booker / TV adaptations snooze-fests.

Main Street - Sinclair Lewis.
Beautiful book about a young woman's growing disillusion with suburban life in the midwest.

Angel - Elizabeth Taylor
I know she is raved about by those who know but it's time for her to be famous and exalted. Amazing book about an Edwardian romantic novelist who is totally deluded.

Damon Runyan short stories - hilarious vivid and brilliant - set in the New York of the 1920s and full of gangsters and molls.

The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
Frankly weird but engrossing tale of travellers crossing the Sahara.

Please dig out all of the above and let me know your secret favourites.

OP posts:
BelligerentGhoul · 11/11/2010 20:45

Oh yes; I liked The Man Who Ate Everything.

queribus · 11/11/2010 20:44

Quarantine - Jim Crace

The man who ate everything - Jeffery Steingarten (I think!) - I loved this book!

otchayaniye · 11/11/2010 20:36

Not underrated, but forgotten these days, but anything by Dorothy L Sayers.

otchayaniye · 11/11/2010 20:35

Paul Bowles 'Let it Come Down' - not as famous as 'Sheltering Sky' I suspect because of the film, but a very good book.

Francagoestohollywood · 11/11/2010 18:42

I have to say that I've seen Lolita underestimated only on MN Grin

I never see Patricia Highsmith mentioned on here, and I think some of her novels are beautiful, my fav being Edith's diary.

I also recently enjoyed Memoirs of an ex prom queen by Alix Shulman.

BelligerentGhoul · 11/11/2010 17:41

I think Lolita is under-estimated perhaps, rather than underrated. It's underestimated by people who haven't read it and make assumptions about it based on hysteria, perhaps.

NicknameTaken · 11/11/2010 17:22

Oooh, some good books - I agree with Angel by Elizabeth Taylor and with Barbara Pym. Also a big fan of the Lucia books by E. F. Benson.

Fainthearted Feminist is great - a 1940s version is E. M. Delafield's "Diary of a Provincial Lady". Oh, and Thank Heaven Fasting by the same author is brilliant too.

otchayaniye · 11/11/2010 16:18

Paul Auster is about as starry and famous as modern US authors get, so hardly what you'd call underrated.

I like him too, but his most recent have left me cold.

LittleCheesyPineappleOne · 11/11/2010 16:04

I just love Paul Auster. My favourites are Moon Palace and The Book of Illusions

corygal · 11/11/2010 13:39

Paul Auster, anything by.

gramercy · 11/11/2010 11:36

A book I found in a secondhand shop:

Emma who Saved my Life by Wilton Barnhardt. Absolutely brilliant - about a bloke who tries to make it as an actor in New York. Written with such humour and pathos.

Another off the wall choice is Janet Street Porter's first autobiography. It's very down-to-earth and paints such a good picture of lower-middle-class life.

DandyDan · 11/11/2010 09:35

Penelope1980 - nice to hear a rec for Fevre Dream - I thought this one of the better vampire novels written, pre all the hype and ubiquitous vamp-stories of nowadays. Not many people have heard of it though.

otchayaniye · 11/11/2010 08:06

TondelayoSchwarzkopf Smile

If you do want underrated Nabokov, try Volshebnik (translated as The Enchanter, you can get in it penguin I think) which is the precursor to Lolita and deals with some of the same themes of old world/new world and ephebophilia.

Penelope1980 · 10/11/2010 23:16

I agree about Main Street - for a book written in 1920 it was really modern, and after reading it I couldn't beleive I hadn't heard of it before.

I think George R R Martin is under-rated, his Game of Thrones series is gaining traction but still not really that heard of given how fabulous they are - especially for people like me who don't usually like fanstasy. He also wrote a great vampire book called Fevre Dream which is years old now and pre-dates (and is better than IMHO) any of the pop Vampire stuff around now

lalalonglegs · 10/11/2010 22:50

Another thread has reminded me how much I adored Any Human Heart by William Boyd. In terms of classics that no one seems to read: The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby is superb and Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell makes me shiver with pleasure, it is sheer perfection.

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 10/11/2010 22:47

I think children's writers are often under-rated. I always go on about her, but I love Theresa Tomlinson's historical novels. The Forestwife is still one of my favourite books, all about life in the 13th(?) century, it's excellent.

Original poster
TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 10/11/2010 22:18

Yeah, sorry Miss. ^shuffles around looking at shoes^

Um...
Um...

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

OP posts:
otchayaniye · 10/11/2010 21:21

Lolita isn't underrated though.

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 10/11/2010 21:05

Lovely, Tondelayo :)

BelligerentGhoul · 10/11/2010 21:00

Lolita is masterful imho.

Francagoestohollywood · 10/11/2010 20:58

Grin... oh dear Grin

Original poster
TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 10/11/2010 20:55

Nobokov Nobokov Nobokov. Light of my life. Fire of my loins. He was Nob in slacks, Nobby at school but to me he was always Nobokov.

Must. Get. Out. More.

OP posts:
otchayaniye · 10/11/2010 20:50

I really recommend 'What Makes Sammy Run' by Budd Shulberg. Tells you everything you need to know about America.

I also love Oblomov -- of course in Russian. I also love Dead Souls but that's hardly underrated.

A second vote for Paul Bowes 'The Sheltering Sky'

The Golovyov Family by Saltikov-Schchedrin - makes anything in Relationships seem tame

Durrell's Alexandria Quartet?

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 10/11/2010 19:56

Bet you got a shock seeing that flash up in active convos Oblomov :o

We weren't talking about you, honest

Oblomov · 10/11/2010 19:50

Maybe I need a name change , after all these years Grin