The Makioka Sisters
Tanizaki Jun'ichirou
A slice-of-life tale similar in concept to a Jane Austen novel but in execution to a progressively-darkening Seinfeld. Tanizaki takes events such as one of the title characters playing with a rabbit's floppy ear, the family going out for sushi, a woman standing in the rain looking out over the sea following her mother's death, and a summer firefly hunt in which one of the participants has a stomach ailment and describes them with some of the most beautiful, imagistic, compassionate language in all of literature.
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien
Unfortunately, the thing that makes The Lord of the Rings such a great and important work is also the thing that can make it so hard to read. Tolkien was the first major figure in literature to try to create an entirely separate, fictional universe from first principles, and thus had to frequently stop and explain what he was doing rather than focussing on plot or character moments. Enjoyment is thus highly contingent on ability to appreciate Tolkien's world-building. I, as it happens, have appreciation aplenty...
Have His Carcase, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors, and Gaudy Night
Dorothy L. Sayers
Technically these are the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth in a series of eleven books featuring Sayers's singular creation Lord Peter Wimsey, but I'm specifying them because they are the emotional and thematic heart of Sayers's body of work, which is itself in a very real sense the emotional and thematic heart of all mystery literature. In that they actually have emotions and themes, which is more than can be said of many of the colder, almost mathematical works of the same period.
Taliessin through Logres
Charles Williams
Arrowroot
Tanizaki Jun'ichirou
Markings
Dag Hammarskjöld
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Sparkling Rain
Hana Monogatari
Yoshiya Nobuko
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke
Kara no Kyoukai
Nasu Kinoko
Labyrinths
Jorge Luis Borges
Till We Have Faces
C.S. Lewis
...fffff
OH GOD, SO MANY MORE...
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The Makioka Sisters - inexplicably fantastic, given its Seinfeldian quality. Soon you'll be able to read it in the original Japanese! Reading it out loud is definitely one of life's great experiences.
ReplyDeleteI know! I know! I can't wait to read other Tanizaki in the original.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, nothing else that he wrote really has the same qualities as Makioka.
Hey, your comment finally showed up on Thursday morning. I think we should watch the Chinese Restaurant episode tonight in honor of Tanizaki.
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