Anaïs Aigner's 1999 Must Reads

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Here is my recommended reading list for the turn of the century. Following the list are short descriptions of each book, in no particular order.



Tropic of Capricorn
Henry Miller
The Plumed Serpent
D.H.Lawrence
The Man Who Died,
D. H. Lawrence

Text of Opening Pages

Lolita
Vladamir Nabakov
The Immoralist
Andre Gide

Knowledge of Angels
Jill Paton Walsh
The Mosquito Coast
Paul Theroux
The Magus
John Fowles
White Noise
Don DeLillo
Pale Fire
Vladamir Nabakov

Commentaries

1. Although Henry Miller (1897-1980) is best known for Tropic of Cancer, Capricorn is really the finest of his earliest novels. The book chronicles the adventures of Miller and his fellow bohemians in Paris in the 1930's and 40's.

2. & 3. People who read Lawrence usually read Lady Chatterly's Lover (popular in the '60's) or Sons and Lovers. But Lawrence's genius is in the cosmological imagery that he usues in his later works, such as The Plumed Serpent, The Man Who Died, Apocalypse and short stories such as "The Sun" and "The Woman Who Rode Away".Read an excerpt from The Man Who Died.

The Plumed Serpent is a marvelous story of an Englishwoman in Mexico who becomes a part of one man's movement to overthrow Christianity and restore the people's primitive Aztec religion. This man sets himself up as a god, and even in this modern day and age, is a delightful shocking read, set against an evocative landscape. The beginning is a little slow going, but once Kate gets to Mexico everything speeds up.

4. Lolita was Modern Library's #4 out of the Top 100, and was recently a major motion picture. (Click here to read Anais Aigner's review.) Although the movie is fascinating, the book is even better. Nabakov is a master of language, and will lull you with mezmorizing wordplay. Read some of his verse.

5. Read Anais Aigner's review of L'Immoraliste (1902).

6. Jill Paton Walsh's Knowledge of Angels takes place on a mythical Mediterranean island during Inquistion times. An athiest washes up on shore of a Christian island, and while his life hangs in the balance, the priest-king of the island uses an experiment with a girl raised by wolves to determine if man is born with an innate knowledge of God.

7. Paul Theroux is best known for his travel nonfiction of train rides across continents, and also for The Mosquito Coast, which was made into a movie starring Harrison Ford. Milroy the Magician is a delightful fiction novel with occasional magical realism about an eccentric magician who changes a young girl's life.

8. The Magus is, in my humble opinion, the best modern novel ever written. It was actually written before Fowles' first published novel, The Collector, another good read. I can't summarize this book; I can only promise magic.

9. One of the finest examples of post-modern fiction is DeLillo's White Noise, which centers around a couple obsessed with death. Who will die first? they are always asking themselves.

10. Pale Fire is another example of experimental fiction: the book opens with a four canto poem, and the rest of the book consists of annotations to the poem, through which the 'story' is told. Want to place these authors in historical context? The Modernism Timeline is an excellent resource.


Interested in reading one of these books? Your best bet is to find them used through AdvancedBook Exchange or Ebay, the internet auction.


Snoopy will fly you back

Ask Anaïs.