Lit Fic for ME please

[Hullygully]

Any recommendations? Need lots of books for hols. I want lit fiction eg I do not want Khaled Hossein, Harold Fry, JoJo Moyes etc etc (nothing wrong with them, but I don't want them).

I want Mantel/Mitchell/Houllebecq type stuff please and thank you.

exexpat, I recommend in no order, just what I loved what pop to mind:

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

Hell at the Breech - Tom Franklin - you might like that, Mig, if you haven't read it. Splendid southern gothic (and true story)

Houllebecq's latest and Atomised/Platform if not read

Dorothy Whipple (for weeping)

will think of more

Oh the Towers of Trebizond...

AM Homes' latest (appalling memory, soz)

Have ordered 3 Bailey Whites

American Ghost too expensive

Ballard: Cocaine Nights

All Rohinton Mistry

Satanic Verses

Do you like Sarah Waters? I've just read "The Little Stranger" a ghost story / psychological drama about societal changes in the 1940's.

And I'm half way through Janet Davey "On Battersea Bridge" it's about family identity and losing yourself.

My dsis keeps going on about her and I do have Stranger, I have an unreasoning prejudice for some reason

Clemency is better than Badgers -imo

Hollinghurst -the line of beauty
Chris Cleave - Little Bee
Ian Banks - Crow Road
David Lodge - Small World

I'm so pleased you've ordered the Bailey Whites. Please Pm me to let me know what you thought. She's not really known in the UK so glad to give her some exposure. I love her mad Southern Gothic friends, relatives and lifestyle. I'm on pin if you want to browse any more for book suggestions. (I'm not trying to promote myself rather that i have too many suggestions to post here!)

Stuff I've loved over the last year or so:

Leaving the Atocha Station. The narrator is incredibly annoying but I still found it compelling.

Inglorious.

The Artificial Silk Girl. Don't be mislead by the title, it's very far from chicklit/Joanne Harris-type stuff.

I like similar stuff to you and have recently re-read L P Hartley The Go Between - read it as a teenager but enjoyed it much more this time with an adult perspective on childhood. I know you said fiction, but can I also recommend Edmund de Waal's memoir, The Hare with the Amber Eyes? I mostly read fiction for pleasure but loved this and was reminded by a colleague the other day of just why it was so wonderful. Have you read Marilyn Robinson Gilead and Home?

mig - I'll try and remember, if not, ask me after the summer. Memory really is shot.

I love southern gothic, I like whatshisname that is so far over the top there's no coming back.

V fond of Gilead and Home

OK, I've downloaded Swamplandia and the Northern Clemency.

Just checked, and realised that I have read Atomised, but the edition I have calls it The Elementary Particles. Might try some more Houllebecq.

My finger is hovering over the buy-with-one-click button on Blood Meridian, but I have a (possibly irrational) reluctance to read anything with an American Western setting. Can someone reassure me that it's not just about cowboys and indians?

Likewise, I am a little hesitant to admit it, but Wolf Hall has been sitting unread by my bed for more than two years - I have read and loved lots of Hilary Mantel's previous stuff, but there is just something about overtly historical fiction that puts me off. I know I must be being silly, as so many people have been raving about it, but I just don't find myself wanting to pick it up.

PS - don't make anyone read Rohinton Mistry on holiday! So emotionally gruelling. It must be five years since I read A Fine Balance and I still can't forget it.

William Gay - so mad

Have you read any Flannery o'Connor if you like southern gothic? Her short stories are excellent.

YOU MUST READ BLOOD MERIDIAN

MUST

MUST

It is utterly utterly superb

The Judge still haunts me

Every page is drenched in blood, but don't let that put you off

And it's based on a true story

It's Cormac's best (IMO)

It's not cowboys and Indians

What about Mistry's Fammily Matters? That's not too gruelling. It's really really sweet

Will look at Hare

will have to hide books from dh

Wolf Hall is magnificent

really a triumph

May We Be Forgiven is the AM Homes one. Also like her This Book Will save Your Life.

mig, what is pin?