by J. D. Salinger
The story of a couple of days in Holden Caulfield's 16-year-old life.
A classic story of teenage alienation.
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two haemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them.
Recommended.
by José Saramago
A sudden epidemic of blindness sets in and chaos and human deprevation follows. A political story of moral, oppression and human nature.
I do not think we became blind, I think we are blind, the blind who see, the blind who see without seing.
José Saramago received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998.
A brilliant, moving and depressing story.
Highly recommended.
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre's famous play from 1945 where he wrote l'enfer c'est les autres (hell is other people).
It later annoyed Sartre that this quote was taken to mean that relations to other people always would be twisted, be hellish. Sartre meant to say that hell is other people only if the relations were twisted since whatever I say about my self others judgement is always part thereof.
Recommended.
by Jean Paul Sartre
A psychological play where it seems that everybody on a certain level is a victim. Some more than others though.
Lizzie is cajoled into doing the right thing - but for whom? And at what cost?
An ok read.
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Eve Charlier is young, rich, beautiful, and has just been poisoned by her husband so that he can marry her sister. Pierre Dumaine is the leader of the revolution and has just been shot by a traitor. They meet in the afterlife and under article 140 are allowed to return to earth for 24 hours to prove that they are made for each other. Can they change the events that got them killed? Is there love at all possible?
Sartre received the Nobel Prize in 1964.
Recommended.
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Antoine Roquentin is a person devoid of human, social, and political commitment. His mental nausea is caused by his lack of comprehension of the absurdity of an objective world.
The unmasking of existence. Freedom is important but frightening. Can you live authentically and choose freedom over the safe habour of inauthenticity - of reality as defined by society?
The Observer wrote:
Nausea is a masterpiece.
Sartre's first novel.
Recommended.
by Jean-Paul Sartre
While the shadow of fascism is looming over pre-war Europe the intellectual Mathieu Delarue is struggling to find money for an abortion. A story of man's loneliness in an absurd world and of the conflict between individual and social morals.
The first volume of the Roads to Freedom.
A masterpiece.
Highly recommended.
by Jean-Paul Sartre
September 1938. Hope, fear, self-deception. Mathieu, Jacques, and Philippe are waiting for the result of Munich Conference. None of them are ready to fight.
The second volume of The Roads to Freedom.
Recommended.
by Jean-Paul Sartre
What do you do when your country is falling into the hands of Nazi Germany? What do you feel? What do you think? Are you ready to learn to kill?
The Times Literary Supplement wrote:
Iron in the Soul must be saluted as a profound, subtle, and terrifying piece of writing.
The third volume of the series Roads To Freedom.
Recommended.
af Jean-Paul Sartre
En bog om virkelighedens betydning for tro og konsekvensen af troen fravær.
Da Brunet mister troen på kommunismen efter Frankrigs nederlag og hans tilfangetagelse i 1940 kommer tilværelsens meningsløshed til syne.
Anbefalet.
by Åsne Seierstad
A fictional account of the family that Seierstad lived with in Kabul after the fall of the Taliban regime.
A story of war, rags and riches, books, and being a woman in an Islamic household.
Seierstad was later forced to make changes in the American version after the real bookseller complained that the book was a bit to honest.
An interesting read.
by Peter Shaffer
The 17 year old Alan Strang is committed to a psychiatric institution after blinding 6 horses. While Dr. Dysart is helping Alan he gradually looses himself.
Dysart: The Normal is the good smile in a child's eye - all right. It is also the dead stare in millions of adults. It both sustains and kills - like a God. It is the ordinary made beautiful; it is also the Avage made lethal. The Normal is the indispensable, murderous God of Health, and I am his Priest.
A brilliant and haunting play on religion and the meaning of life.
Winner of the Tony Award for Drama. Made into an excellent film with Richard Burton as Dr. Dysart in 1978.
Highly recommended.
by W. Somerset Maugham
An author, William Ashenden, is asked to write what he remembers of another author for a biography. Ashenden's reflections is the dead author's story - the official as well as the unofficial - which is also the story of his formative years and of Rosie the loving wife of the author.
Also a portrait of a time that is no more.
Recommended
af Jan Sonnergaard
En meget rost novellesamling. Sorte historier om livet og hverdagen.
Jeg forstår desværre ikke, hvorfor novellesamlingen er så rost. Karakterskildringerne er urealistiske, og historierne er ikke særligt imponerende.
Kan ikke anbefales.
af Jan Sonnergaard
Denne novellesamling fortsætter i samme stil som Radiator.
Desværre også hvad kvaliteten angår.
Man får næsten det indtryk, at med penge følger pr. definition en stinkende ubehagelig personlighed og manglende intelligens (dum nok til at fortælle om alle de tåbelige/ulovlige ting, men dog klog nok til ikke at blive taget).
Historierne hænger simpelthen ikke ordentligt sammen.
af Jan Sonnergaard
Den bedste af Sonnergaards novelletrilogi.
Selv om det enkelte steder halter med realismen, så er bogen velskrevet, og flere af novellerne er faktisk gode.
Og det gør godt at vide at Camilla er blevet underdog. Jeg finder det behageligt at hun logrer så meget for mig. ”Flattering works”. Også på mig. I dén grad.
Det forhøjer min produktivitet og forbedrer min dagligdag. Og jeg opfinder et princip som jeg kalder minus-én-princippet: I et forhold får man kun magten hvis man elsker én grad mindre end den anden.
Anbefales.
by John Steinbeck
The story of two drifters. George and his simple-minded friend Lennie work the ranches of California with a dream of one day owning a piece of land themselves. The strong Lennie, however, constantly gets into trouble.
The New York Times wrote:
A thriller, a gripping tale that you will not set down until it is finished.
Which is not entirely accurate but it is an intensely moving story of loneliness and misfits.
Recommended.
by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck's monumental novel about the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons.
When a child first catches adults out – when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not have divine intelligens, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just – his world falls into panic desolution. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of the gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of qrowing.
A Cain and Abel story of the mystery of identity, love, and more importantly love's absence.
John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Recommended.
by John Steinbeck
The story of Kino - the poor fisherman - his wife and child, of finding the great pearl that will change everything and, the evil than men do.
Now the tension which had been growing in Juana boiled up to the surface and her lips were thin. 'This thing is evil,' she cried harshly. 'This pearl is like sin! It will destroy us,' and her voice rose shrilly. 'Throw it away, Kino. Let us break it between stones. Let us bury it and forget the place. Let us throw it back into the sea. It has brought evil. Kino, my husband, it will destroy us.
Recommended.
by Oliver Statler
Statler's account of his pilgrimage encircling the island of Shikoku in hommage to the buddhist saint Kobo Daishi (774-835) whose story he also tells. A two month trek through the mountains, farmlands, villages, and along the rugged coastline.
This is where one begins. On this mountaintop, at the holiest spot of this sprawling complex of temples, in the shadow of these towering cedars, one stands before the tomb of the saint whose life and legacy inspire the pilgrimage. Here one asks his blessing, his guidance and protection, his company, on the pilgrimage to come.
James Michener wrote:
Anyone who loves authentic out-of-the-way travel will enjoy this beautiful book.
I could not agree more.
Recommended.
by Botho Strauss
The story of Richard's downfall after being left by Hannah, sitting alone in his apartment obsessing and writing.
A dark and gloomy story of decay and loss.
Quite boring.
by William Styron
Darkness Visible is Styron's account of his devastating descent into depression in 1985 when he first became aware of his struggle with a disorder in his mind.
The difference now was in the sure understanding that that tomorrow, when the pain descended once more, or the tomorrow after that - certainly on some not-too-distant tomorrow - I would be forced to judge that life was not worth living and thereby answer, for myself at least, the fundamental question of philosophy.
A short, intimate book on the agony and anguish of madness made all the more remarkable by it's continued reference to literature.
Recommended
af Erik Søndergaard Hansen
med efterskrift ved Johs. Nørregaard Frandsen
(Egentlig skrevet af Flemming Chr. Nielsen)
Et fiktivt forsøg på at fortælle den anden side, endda en alternativ version af et af det 19. århundredes berømte kærlighedehistorier - forholdet mellem Søren Kierkegaard og Regine Olsen.
Jeg fik ikke sagt ham min Hensigt og er nedtrykt. Det er alllerede bælmørkt, men over Mørket er Stjernehimlens Reenhed.
Kort og lidt sjov bog.
Dagbøger 1949-53
af Villy Sørensen
En lærd ung mands dagbøger. Tanker om filosofi og literatur. Perioden op til udgivelsen af novellesamling Sære historier.
En dagbog er dog en vidunderlig opfindelse - dagbogen er det eneste sted i verden hvor man er fri og ikke behøver at tage hensyn til nogen som helst.
Anbefales stærkt.
Dagbøger 1953-61
af Villy Sørensen
En forfatters dagbog. Tanker om tiden, filosofien og literaturen.
Jeg kvæles hos den som ingen metafysik har, ti han lever i en lukket verden. Men jeg frastdes af den som hævder sin metafysisk højere sandhed som et diktatorisk princip. Jeg strider ontologisk med den selvtilstrækkelige logik - og fægter logisk imod den selvophøjede ontologi.
Anbefales stærkt.
Dagbøger 1961-74
af Villy Sørensen
Flere tanker om literatur og filosofi men også om samfundet. Perioden, hvor Sørensen skriver bøgerne Nietzsche, Kafkas digtning og Schopenhauer.
Den centrale spørgsmål er virkelig: providentia - fortuna, den enkle mening eller den tydelige meningsløshed.
Bogen kunne med fordel have været forsynet med et noteapparat, der kunne sætte nogle af tankerne i perspektiv.
Anbefales.
Et interview ved Finn Hauberg Mortensen
af Vily Sørensen
30 timers samtale er blevet til en bog om Villy Sørensens liv. Bogen har ikke interview form, men den bærer dog præg heraf med dens noget rodede indhold og de korte sætninger.
Bogen er sådan set læsværdig, men den er ikke noget særligt. Jeg vil til en hver tid foretrække dagbøgerne.
En ok bog.
af Villy Sørensen
En novellesamling, der spiller på ironien, fantasien og literaturhistorien.
Sørensens berømte debut fra 1953.
Jeg har forsøgt at læse denne novellesamling flere gange uden, at det er lykkedes.
Den er simpelthen for sær.
by Scarlett Thomas
In a second-hand book shop Ariel finds a rare and perhaps cursed book which let her enter a strange cimension.
’So if we’re all quarks and electrons …’ he [Adam] begins.
‘What?’
‘We could make love and it would be nothing more than quarks and electrons rubbing together.’
‘Better than that,’ I say. ‘Nothing really “rubs together” in the microscopic world. Matter never really touches other matter, so we could make love without any of our atoms touching at al. Remember that electrons sit on the outsides of atoms, repelling other electrons. So we could make love and actually repel each other at the same time.’
Douglas Coupland wrote:
A masterpiece.
I, however, think that it is too weird.
An ok read though.
by Hunter S. Thompsen
A journalist's drug induced ravings in Las Vegas originally published in the early 70's. Thompsen is the founder of Gonzo journalism and Doonesbury character Uncle Duke is based on him.
I took another big hit off the amyl, and by the time I got to the bar my heart was full of joy. I felt like monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger ... a Man on the Move, and just sick enough to be totally confident.
While it comes highly recommended I cannot recommend it.
Or, Life in the Woods
by Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau's journal of the year he spent alone at Walden Pond in 1845 refusing to play by the rules of the ordinary world.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to 'glorify God and enjoy him forever'.
An obligated as well as recommeded read.
by Leo Tolstoy
A bitter-sweet love story set in the Russian aristocracy in the late 19th century.
Anna Karenina breaks with convention to live with her great love, count Vronski. A decision than get her shunned from society's elite and forces her to make an impossible choice between her son and her lover.
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Recommended.
by Mark Twain
A 19th-century American, Hank Morgan, is accidently returned to sixth-century England.
As well as having written a great story Twain also uses the clash of modern technology and chivalry to discuss the nature of politics.
Recommended.
The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
by Evelyn Waugh
A book about growing up, about love and loss, and about finding God. The innocense of the past and the degradation of the modern world.
Anthony Burgess wrote:
It is appropriately, a seductive book. ... This is one of those disturbing novels in which the faults do not matter.
Highly recommended
a tale of murder, madness and the Oxford English Dictionary
by Simon Winchester
The story of two of the men men behind the making of the Oxford English Dictionary - Dr. James Murray, a scholar and the editor of the OED and Dr. W. C. Minor, one of the most valued contributors to the OED, a millionaire, army surgeon and complete lunatic confined to the Broadmore Asylum.
Short and entertaining. Well worth the time.
The New York Times wrote:
The linguistic detective story of the decade.
Recommended.
by Tom Wolfe
Late one night bond trader Sherman McCoy and his mistress takes a wrong turn on the freeway starting an avalance of events leaving a young black man in a coma and McCoy heading for desaster.
A brilliant satire on the 1980's.
By the way, forget the film. It does not even come close to doing the book justice.
Highly recommended.
by Tom Wolfe
The enormous and detailed plot of A Man in Full revolves around Charlie Croker who is a ruthless real estate tycoon with no class, no education, and but lots and lots of money. A tale of climbing or trying to climb the greasy pole of social life.
In an era like this one the 20th century's fin de siècle position was everything, and it was the hardest thing to get.
A modern day Great American Novel.
Not quite as good as Bonfire of the Vaniaties but definately a recommended read.
by Tom Wolfe
A novel about college life.
Charlotte Simmons is a bright girl from a small mountain town i North Carolina coming to Dupont College - a strange place where she does not belong. It is also a story of the farce of the student-athlete system.
Not quite up to the standard of The Bonfire of the Vanities but none the less quite the page turner. Great story even if it ends a bit abruptly.
Recommended.
by Virginia Woolf
The story of Orlando who starts out as a young noble man in the sixteenth century only to end as a female writer in the 1920s.
Orlando was dedicated to Woolf's lover, Vita Sackville-West, to whom she wrote that it was about the lusts of your flesh and the lure of your mind and then she added a Shall you mind?.
Nigel Nicholson accordingly called Orlando the longest and most charming love letter in literature.
Recommended.
by Gao Xingjian
An author reflects on his life - past and present.
A novel of loneliness, being in excile, the repression of Maoism, and relationships with women.
Xingjian received the Nobel Prize in 2000.
An ok read.
A Novel of Obsession
by Irvin D. Yalom
Josef Breuer is treating Friedrich Nietzsche for his suicidal despair while changing himself forever. An interessting mix of philosphy and psychology.
It is a fine novel but I most admit I sometimes found it a bit irritating. I did not really like Yalom's Nietzsche but it might work for you.
Yalom is primarily an existentialist psychotherapist who also writes novels on psychological topics.
Recommended.
by Stefan Zweig
The memoires of Stefan Zweig. Or rather it is more than the memoires of Zweig. It is the story of the destruction of the old Europe. A world that was and that will never be again.
When Zweig and his wife committed suicide during the second world war (1942) the memoires was found among his papers.
Recommended.
by Stefan Zweig
An idiot savant chess world champion plays an amatour on a steam boat to Argentina and looses.
The narrator gets the story of Dr. B. who aquired chess poisoning as a prisoner of the Gestapo.
If you like chess the novel is a must.
Recommended.
