100 BEST NOVELS? PT. 8

 

Here are the next 10 titles on the list:

71.  A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes, 1929.  When an English family living in Jamaica has their plantation ruined in a storm, they take a ship back to England and are beset by pirates.  This is an unusual nautical tale in that it's mostly about the family's children who wind up being held by the pirates, who aren't all bad.  There are some moments in the novel that don't ring true (one character's death is strangely shrugged off), but for the most part this a lively and interesting tale. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes.

72.  A House for Mr Biswas,V. S. Naipaul, 1961.  Set in rural Trinidad and Tobago, and loosely based on the life of Naipaul's own father, this is a very good look at one mans' difficult life.  It also makes some interesting points about colonialism and religion.  There are some slow parts, and the ending is an anticlimax, but it's mostly good. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes.

73.  The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West, 1939.  A rambling but engrossing look at an odd group of people mostly just getting by in Hollywood (the main character paints backdrops for movies).  A riotous movie premiere makes for a surprising (but fitting) ending. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes.

74.  A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway, 1929.  Based on Hemingway's own experiences serving in Italy during WWI, this is my personal favorite Hemingway novel.  Along with realistically depicting the war,  it's also a tender, sad love story.  DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes.

75.  Scoop, Evelyn Waugh, 1938.  Based partly on Waugh's own experiences working at The Daily Mail newspaper, this amusing satire is about a young columnist who is, due to a name mixup,  sent as a correspondent to a (fictional) East African country he knows nothing about. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? No.  While Waugh's cynical view of journalism is often clever, I don't think this novel reaches the level of greatness, and Waugh's better known Brideshead Revisited is more worthy of being on the list.

76.  The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark, 1961.  Set in 1930's Edinburgh, this novel tells the story of a school teacher and the six ten year old girls that she has a strong (but not always good!) influence on, even as they eventually leave her class.  What might at first seem like a sentimental look at an inspirational teacher winds up in a darker place. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes.

77.  Finnigan's Wake, James Joyce, 1939.  It took Joyce 17 years to write a followup to Ulysses, and the result was easily the most difficult to read famous novel ever written.  According to Wikipedia, Joyce created his own language for the novel "composed of composite words from some sixty to seventy world languages", and I don't doubt it.  Add to that the 10 examples of 100 letter words (!), and I'm sure you can understand why this novel took me longer to finish than any other. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? I'm going to say no for now, because too much of this book gave me a headache.  But famed literary critic Joseph Campbell has written a "translation" of the novel, and I may revisit it with his guidance.  

78.  Kim, Rudyard Kipling, 1901.  Set in India, Kipling tells a fun adventure story about a young orphan who embarks on a spiritual journey with a Tibetan Llama and gets mixed up in some British/ Russian spy intrigue.  Although a bit too long, Kipling's look at turn of the century India is always fascinating. DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes.

79.  A Room With a View, E. M Forster, 1908.  A love story that begins in Italy in 1900,  this is a mostly successful, relatively straightforward story (that has an interesting anti religious undercurrent running through it). DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST? No, while this certainly isn't bad, Forster's staid style keeps it from greatness.  The only Forster novel that I think should be on the list is A Passage to India.

80.  Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh, 1945.  Starting in 1923 and ending during WWII, Waugh's most famous novel deals with a young aspiring painter and his relationship with a wealthy family that live in an estate called Brideshead.  The various romantic entanglements  and the buildup to the war are all well described by Waugh.  DO I THINK THAT IT DESERVES TO BE ON THE LIST?  Yes.