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Ant Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I liked Microserfs, and Generation X; the rest

> weren't anywhere near as good imo. A bit

> disappointing.


I think these two are the most original of his books, but Girlfriend in a Coma, Life After God and All Families Are Psychotic have got more heart. After that, I think his fiction went down hill a bit, though I did enjoy his odd but marvellous one-man show in Stratford-on-Avon a couple of years ago.

Another favourite is Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in particular float my boat.

I stopped reading Iain Banks's stuff after the The Crow Road or was it Espedair Street and I've never been into his science fiction stuff as most sci-fi bores me to tears, besides I prefer to read the classics from the 19th century whether it be English, French or Russian, for example, Dickens, Hardy, Baudelaire, Zola, Du Maupassant and De Balzac, Dostoyevsky, Gogol and Tolstoy. I read voraciously and obviously I enjoy a lot of more contempory stuff too and there is a lot to recommend but maybe I'll get back to you on that at another time.

Well I'm quite enjoying it as it goes so far (about half way through). Quite an easy read, good sense of humour and things are clearly going to get pretty dark pretty soon.


It's reminding me a little bit of the film Very Bad Things which was hilarious in a feeling guilty about laughing sort of way.

Jah Lush, no punch line on Dickens vs. Eastenders!


I was once told that he wrote his books as episodes for weekly magazines, for young Victorian mums to vicariously live their lives through.. in much the same way that the role is filled by Eastenders now.


Apparently it accounts for the slightly formulaic feel to his narrative, and those endless decriptions about the weather reflecting the emotional state of the protagonists.

Cool, cheers Polly! I'll check through Mrs Keef's collection first, but if she doesn't have it, I'd be very grateful for your spare :)) Trying to think which Dicken's Mrs Keef was laughing about recently, because 2 characters who are basically sh!ts have Merde within their names!

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