[quote=“cfimages”]John Irving
Tom Wolfe
Salman Rushdie (with basically the same reasoning as jimipresley)
John Steinbeck (although I haven’t read him in over a decade)
Dennis Lehane (his standalone’s not his series ones).[/quote]
I like Dennis Lehane and John Steinbeck too.
Who are the best Australian novelists, in your opinion? I already know the best beer, snack foods, and beaches in Australia. No idea who the best novelists are.
[quote=“Tomas”]
Who are the best Australian novelists, in your opinion? [/quote]
Peter Carey. “Exotic Pleasures” is a masterpiece (although it’s a short story collection, not a novel). And Nick Cave. I suppose we’d have to include J.M. Coetzee, who is now an Australian national. :bluemad:
[quote=“Tomas”][quote=“BigJohn”]I think Jimmipresley’s favorite is Wilbur Smith!
Anyway, can we exclude Camus and Hemingway, just because they’ve become cliches?
How about Tolkien?[/quote]
Very nice non-contribution there, BJ. Give us your top five![/quote]
I don’t have a top five. My mind doesn’t work that way. BTW, the name’s BigJohn, and you of all people should know why.
Me too. In my top ten for sure. Cannery Row series and East of Eden especially. Brings to mind John Jakes who might be as good of a storyteller but trashier 
I still have to finish “the Kent Family chronicles.” “North and South” trilogy really something. Well worth looking up if you like your historical fiction with a touch of harlequin romance
[quote=“BigJohn”][quote=“Tomas”][quote=“BigJohn”]I think Jimmipresley’s favorite is Wilbur Smith!
Anyway, can we exclude Camus and Hemingway, just because they’ve become cliches?
How about Tolkien?[/quote]
Very nice non-contribution there, BJ. Give us your top five![/quote]
I don’t have a top five. My mind doesn’t work that way. BTW, the name’s BigJohn, and you of all people should know why.[/quote]
Yes, yes, we’ve all seen your posterior and are impressed by it’s girth.
So how does your mind work? Can you name your top 2.4 novelists? There must be some good ones up thar in the narthern country, other than Yann Martel, whom I love because he sends a letter to Stephen Harper every few weeks to tell Harper about a book he’s read, and because he wrote a pretty good novel about a Bengal tiger and a boy in a lifeboat.
So generic, are all the foreigners on this island so 口?
[quote=“Dynaflow”]So generic, are all the foreigners on this island so 口?
You’re not allowed into my thread if you’re going to act like you’re superior to everyone else.
I like Bukowski very much, read him during my “I’m cool because I’m living more dangerously than I ever have before” phase.
[quote=“Tomas”][quote=“cfimages”]John Irving
Tom Wolfe
Salman Rushdie (with basically the same reasoning as jimipresley)
John Steinbeck (although I haven’t read him in over a decade)
Dennis Lehane (his standalone’s not his series ones).[/quote]
I like Dennis Lehane and John Steinbeck too.
Who are the best Australian novelists, in your opinion? I already know the best beer, snack foods, and beaches in Australia. No idea who the best novelists are.[/quote]
Bryce Courtney or Thomas Kennealy (his book Schindler’s Ark became the movie Schindler’s List).
[quote]Tomas Said Dynaflow wrote:So generic, are all the foreigners on this island so 口?
1. Louis Ferdinand Celine
2. Knut Hamsun
3. John Fante
4. Dan Fante
5. Charles Bukowski
You’re not allowed into my thread if you’re going to act like you’re superior to everyone else.
I like Bukowski very much, read him during my “I’m cool because I’m living more dangerously than I ever have before” phase.[/quote]
I never went through one of those “I’m cool because I’m living more dangerously than I ever have before” phases. I knew I should have put Sherwood Anderson as my Number 5 instead of Bukowski!
[quote=“Tomas”]
Yes, yes, we’ve all seen your posterior and are impressed by it’s girth.
So how does your mind work? Can you name your top 2.4 novelists? There must be some good ones up thar in the narthern country, other than Yann Martel, whom I love because he sends a letter to Stephen Harper every few weeks to tell Harper about a book he’s read, and because he wrote a pretty good novel about a Bengal tiger and a boy in a lifeboat.[/quote]
Yes, that’s big too! As jimmipresley’s favorite author’s favorite character Sean Courtney said in, The Sound of Thunder, “It takes a heavy hammer to drive a long nail.”
But seriously Tomas, I have read mainly non-fiction for the last 18 years or so.
But I like Camus, Hemingway, Le Carre, Ian Fleming (no laughter please!) Mark Twain, a bunch of Latino guys like Garcia Marquez and Vargas Llosa, and some others too. Tolkien, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, Anthony Burgess, and some others I’ll remember later.
These are mainly old school. Are the newer ones better? If so I’ll have to look into it.
So hard to choose just five favourites,but here goes…
[quote=“Dougster”]So hard to choose just five favourites,but here goes…
Well then give us another 5 or 10 if you like.
Many have mentioned Conrad. I’ve never been able to get interested in his novels.
John Fowles is new to me. I’ll check him out, thanks.
I like Conrad for 'Heart of Darkness" and “A Secret Agent”.
John Fowles “The Collector” is worth checking out, but his famous one is “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”.
[quote=“Dougster”]I like Conrad for 'Heart of Darkness" and “A Secret Agent”.
John Fowles “The Collector” is worth checking out, but his famous one is “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”.[/quote]
And “The Magus”!
Roald Dahl - I know it’s silly but I read more kiddy books than grown up ones, and this is one author that makes me giggle as much as the kids.
Tolkein, Rowling, Kipling, Toni Morrison, Dickens, etc. but it’s a pity I only ever read ‘The English Patient’ by Michel Oondatje, that affected me for weeks. hmmmmm
Tim Winton’s a fantastic Australian noveliest. Cloudstreet is his most famous, although I haven’t read that one; the ones that I’ve loved include Dirt Music and Breath. Not such a fan of Shallows.
Tim Winton’s probably in my top 5.
Others…
I’m surprised no one’s getting all definitional. Greatest or favourites? I’d say JK Rowling is one of the greatest storytellers of our time, but that doesn’t quite put her in the “great novelist” category for me.
Jimipresley: Ian Banks overrated, or Iain M. Banks overrated? I’ve never read any of his literary “Iain Banks” novels, but “Iain M. Banks” is the only science fiction author I still read, unless you want to include Atwood’s MadAddam books.
Canadian recommendations: if you like short stories, Alice Munro is one of the best, but she doesn’t write novels. Atwood can be fantastic: Oryx and Crake, Blind Assassin, Robber Bride, The Year of the Flood… for me, she really hit her stride in the late 1980s, and I’m not such a fan of the early novels that made her famous (for example, The Handmaid’s Tale).
Roth: I’ve only read American Pastoral, and fundamentally did not get it.
Virgil. In the original Latin
Not sure about the other four.
[quote=“BigJohn”][quote=“Dougster”]I like Conrad for 'Heart of Darkness" and “A Secret Agent”.
John Fowles “The Collector” is worth checking out, but his famous one is “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”.[/quote]
And “The Magus”![/quote]
Yes, “The Magus” … What can you say about it … One of the strangest novels I’ve ever read, but totally brilliant. When I was reading it, I was thinking I wish I had read it in my late teens.
I forgot about Cormack McCarthy - “Blood Meridan” and “Sutree” are awesome books. He’s arguably the greatest living novelist.
There’s also Faulkner’s “The Sound and The Fury”. Oh, and DH Lawrence (Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love) as well as Thomas Hardy (Jude The Obscure, Tess)
A difficult choice, and in no particular order:
If we were allowed to add more, I’d add Agatha Christie, Tolkien, and Michael Cunningham.
[quote=“ThreadKiller”]A difficult choice, and in no particular order:
If we were allowed to add more, I’d add Agatha Christie, Tolkien, and Michael Cunningham.[/quote]
You are allowed to add more. “Your Top Five” was merely a suggestion. You can also mention your favorite punk rock hairdos, if the spirit moves you.
What has Cunningham written that you liked besides The Hours? Or does he make the list based solely on that fine achievement? And Agatha Christie is an interesting choice. So prolific–there was no cessation in quality at any point in her long career?