[Books] Again I come to you for suggestions

My independant study assignment is to pick an era of literature (Lost Generation, Dark Romantic, Post Modernist, Augustine, etc.) and a book from that era. From there, my final essay is to write about the era, about the author and their influence in (or how they were influenced by) the era and how that book fits into the era in question. All of this is to give the novel context, but because the range that I can choose from is so large, I don't know exactly where to start.

Ok, I kind of do. I want to pick an interesting author. I've been recommended Jonathan Swift (so probably Gulliver's Travels), but I've also considered Joseph Heller, Daniel Keyes, Kurt Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon.

Do you guys have any suggestions on good authors, or good books in particular to do for this assignment?

Joseph Heller and especially Kurt Vonnegut are kind of snarky bitches who I found somewhat irritating to read (although setting that aside, Heller especially produces some damn good prose). I really can't recommend Thomas Pynchon highly enough.

Herman Melville or Voltaire.

Dan Brown.

Herman Melville was listed, and I'm marginally interested.

So far, my thumbs-up are pointed at: Flowers for Algernon, Catch-22, and Gulliver's Travels.

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Originally Posted by coqauvin

Flowers for Algernon

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Uhh, isn't this about 20 pages long? I remember reading it in like 9th grade, I think it's a short story.

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Originally Posted by Syme

Uhh, isn't this about 20 pages long? I remember reading it in like 9th grade, I think it's a short story.

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No, it's a 150-200 page (don't quote me i don't remember) novel written in the format of journal entries from a mentally retarded person who undergoes an operation that brings him up to Mr. E levels of intelligence. It chronicles his life paralleled by a mouse named Algernon, who was the test rat of the procedure, his coming of age and going back through all the events in his life before regressing back to what he was before the operation.

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Originally Posted by coqauvin

No, it's a 150-200 page (don't quote me i don't remember) novel written in the format of journal entries from a mentally retarded person who undergoes an operation that brings him up to Mr. E levels of intelligence. It chronicles his life paralleled by a mouse named Algernon, who was the test rat of the procedure, his coming of age and going back through all the events in his life before regressing back to what he was before the operation.

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Yep, that's the plot I remember... except I swear it took up no more than about 15-20 pages in my 9th grade lit compilation.

EDIT: Okay apparently it started out as a short story and he later expanded it into a novel. Mystery solved.

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Originally Posted by coqauvin

Herman Melville was listed, and I'm marginally interested.

So far, my thumbs-up are pointed at: Flowers for Algernon, Catch-22, and Gulliver's Travels.

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Billy Budd is a pretty interesting read. I just read it last week.

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Originally Posted by Syme

Joseph Heller and especially Kurt Vonnegut are kind of snarky bitches who I found somewhat irritating to read (although setting that aside, Heller especially produces some damn good prose).

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Oh my God.

I'm not the only one who thinks this.

I think I'm going to cry.

I would hug you.

gay

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Originally Posted by gwahir

gay

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I would cup your balls and suck your penis.

aaaaand sycld tosses another gasoline-soaked log on the raging bonfire that is how much we know he is gay

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Originally Posted by coqauvin

aaaaand sycld tosses another gasoline-soaked log on the raging bonfire that is how much we know he is gay

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Hey now... I was just reacting to gwahir's comment.

The e-hug I gave Syme was given in a purely fraternal spirit, I swear :shifty:

in sycld's defense i probably shouldn't have opened up a can of flames on this thread so i'm probably the bad guy here

You should read Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test or another Tom Wolfe novel because Tom Wolfe is cooler than all of us.

Bonfire of the Vanities was also excellent.