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If you like reading Jonathan Coe, who else do you really love?

64 replies

pruners · 11/03/2008 15:33

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happystory · 11/03/2008 16:01

Can I butt in quietly? (I loved Middlesex BTW) What do I read by Jonathan Coe for starters?

girlfrommars · 11/03/2008 15:59

Mario Vargos Llosa, "The Feast of the Goat"

Andrey Kurkov, "Death and the Penguin" and "Penguin Lost"

marina · 11/03/2008 15:56

Oh, would that be Emotionally Weird, pruners - I hated it too, it put me off her for quite a long time

pruners · 11/03/2008 15:55

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pruners · 11/03/2008 15:54

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marina · 11/03/2008 15:52

Yes, I thought it was a bit flimsy at first (and so did several reviewers) but it had me reeled in nicely by the end. Definitely novella-ish though...
Agree re Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex is a wonderful novel - and you have of course already read Donna Tartt's The Secret History?

pruners · 11/03/2008 15:50

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orangina · 11/03/2008 15:49

Do they have to be english? Have you read all of the Kate Atkinson books?
Re: US writers, how about Wally Lamb, Barbara Kingslover, Johnathan Frantzen, Jeffrey Eugenides, Karl Hiassen....

girlfrommars · 11/03/2008 15:48

Stephen Fry?

marina · 11/03/2008 15:47

Je m'en souviens bien gggl

marina · 11/03/2008 15:47

Yes, with Hilary Mantel, although some of what she articulates is very much the dark side of one's psyche
William Boyd I love just because he is another man who writes convincingly from the female perspective
Gerard Woodward combines a very familiar setting - the wasteland of 70s suburbia - with a hallucinogenic weirdness you will either love or not. I find him scary, hilarious and desperately sad, but am so glad I came across him.
Marge Piercy's early stuff is fab, just an excellent read. You have such a shocking treat in store if you have never read Woman on the Edge of Time
But, as you and I both know, Jonathan is a hard act to follow

ggglmpp · 11/03/2008 15:43

Sylvia Plath
second William Boyd
Paul Auster
mind gone blank - off to pick up kids from school

pruners · 11/03/2008 15:41

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marina · 11/03/2008 15:38

William Boyd
Hilary Mantel (if not already tried her, I suggest you start with Eight Months on Ghazzah Street or An Experiment in Love (and NOT with Fludd)
Marge Piercy, especially Fly Away Home and Woman on the Edge of Time
Gerard Woodward's unforgettable trilogy Summer, I'll Go to Bed at Noon and A Curious Earth