you can keep your shiny new books, give me the tired old trash ~

[lookingland]

last night i finally returned doctorow to the the library and got some fresh books. maybe now i can get back on track with the 50bookchallenge since i'm so far behind. i was going to get the first book of Kristin Lavransdatter, but i'm in the midst of getting my writing into high gear and i felt it would be better to read work closer to "home". so i got a book of stephen crane's Country Sketches which i have never read, a strange little old book by aline kilmer (who i suspect is better known as a poet) called Hunting a Hair-Shirt and other Spiritual Adventures (published 1923), and The Luck of Roaring Camp by bret harte.

i can only guess that bret harte isn't well known in the literary circles because i can't imagine otherwise how i got to be 34 years old without ever having read his work or having it recommended to me by someone ~ anyone! while he works in a more specifically "western" genre, he's a contemporary of twain and eggleston, just exactly the sort of regional writer i look for. he was also terrifically prolific (why o why did crane have to die so young!). if i actually like harte's work, i'll be busy for a long time.

amusing side note: harte has a story called "Tennessee's Partner". guess the name "Tennessee" wasn't all that uncommon in the 19th century after all.

i still feel a bit bad about The March, if only because i promised i would try to read a balance of contemporary authors in the mix this year. i'm just not predisposed to contemporary writers, clearly. a lot of it has to do with dominating contemporary themes (which i don't tend to find interesting), contemporary first-person introspective narratives (which i usually can't relate to), and modern settings (which i'd just as soon rather escape from).

that said, if anyone has any recommendations, feel free to make them. i am notoriously picky, but i'd like to know what other people are reading and enjoying. every blue moon i manage to crawl out of my carapace and read something out of the predictable genre/era, so you never know!

: D

Comments

Re: Harte and Doctorow

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i get from what i've read (or glanced at) that harte had few friends and twain's criticism of him basically quashed his career. i understand he wound up in europe in the end. apparently he was a bit of a social misfit.

i tell ya, you gotta read Montmorency. i guarantee you will love it or i will eat the hat of your choice.

: D

Re: Harte and Doctorow

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Bret Harte did some very good stuff. "Tennessee's Partner" and such are right there with Kipling and Colette, or almost, imo.

For more on that period from someone who was in it, you might try Robert Service, if you don't mind rhymes and scans (similar to Kipling's). His most famous ones were the silly, but some of his poems portrayed quite serious aspects of why people went on the gold rush and went back on it later too.

Re: Harte and Doctorow

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

thanks for the reco ~ ! i'll check him out!

: D