My favorite writers who aren't dead

My favorite writers who aren't dead - part 1

These are inclined to change order depending on the day, so there's no ranking system. It might not even be these same writers all the time. But that's who it is today. Pretty easy list to make, I just have to look at the bookshelf. Novelists only since I don't read enough non-fiction or poetry these days, unfortunately.

11. Phillip Roth - American

Reference Novels: Portnoy's Complaint; Nemesis; American Pastoral

Why: Been good since the sixties and still at it (Nemesis was released in 2010), I loved Portnoy's Complaint (yes, I'm a perv) and how it sounded like a long novel of standup comedy. First time I'd ever seen that done. He's got character-driven prose down too, American Pastoral is as cerebral a novel as they come.

10. Salman Rushdie - British/Indian

Reference Novels: Midnight's Children; Shalimar the Clown; Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Why: Sadly most famous for the fatwa due to The Satanic Verses which isn't one of his best works. The epic novel spanning generations and locales is his specialty and nowhere is it more magnificent than Midnight's Children; a novel which has influenced every Indian writer in English since 1982 (no matter what they say).

9. Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Colombian

Reference Novels: One Hundred Years of Solitude; Love in the Time of Cholera; Strange Pilgrims

Why: Strange Pilgrims is on my desk right now (I use it for referencing both during editing and crafting). I've read Love in the Time of Cholera more than fifty times and despite how damaging that must be for my psyche I'll probably read it another five times next year too. One Hundred Years of Solitude is the most influential novel to every Latin American writer post-1968 and for a lot of Caribbean writers. Maybe for the whole world.

8. V.S. Naipaul - Trinidadian/British/ (world?)

Reference Novels: A House for Mr. Biswas; A Bend in the River; An Area of Darkness

Why: Fiction or Travel writing, he's undoubtedly the master of both. No one has a command of English like Naipaul. Either no one sees what he sees or no one is willing to commit it to paper. Love him or hate him (in the Caribbean it's usually hate) he is among the elite of writers today, probably ever.

7. Kazuo Ishiguro - British/ Japanese

Reference Novels: The Remains of the Day; Never Let Me Go; The Unconsoled

Why: The Remains of the Day was one of the first novels I'd read in a long time and immediately re-read it once I finished. Never Let Me Go was the most clever novel I'd read in a long time and gave me a taste for science fiction (that taste was fleeting, unfortunately). I like The Unconsoled most because it reminds me of works by one of my favorite writers of all time, Kafka. It's has no clear start and no clear resolution, with issues of the past haunting but never defined. So, it's just like real life.

6. Milan Kundera - Czech/ French

Reference Novels: The Unbearable Lightness of Being; The Book of Laughter and Forgetting; The Art of The Novel

Why: Mostly essays these days but Kundera's novels are like no one else's. Regularly breaking the fourth wall to address the reader directly, multiple lead characters and always that setting that defines everything but never becomes intrusive. It's a mix that's very accessible without ever being anything less than excellent

best comedians of the decade

criteria : must do stand-up comedy. only judged from stand up and sketch . 10.Demetri Martin why: He likes constructing palindromes. That's reason enough. Uses all sorts of visual aids and sketches. Great with the one liners too. Most unconventional comedian since Gallagher.Maybe. 9. Russell Brand why: Obnoxious, loud and very strange. Known as much for his off stage antics than his comedy. But one of the best young 'angry' comedians out there. Although there's a sneaking suspicion the accent makes him cool (er). 8. Robin Williams why: Back in2002 with LIVE on Broadway, the show broke several records for a comedy show. Showed he's still funny, hasn't let success go to his head and can still make it all up on the spot. 7. Ricky Gervais why: In the Office for the first part of the century, everywhere else for the last. Most people know him for his film roles, but he's great on the stage too. Doesn't shy away from the controversial topics. And it isn't

Best Films of the Decade - 2010s - Third Part

11. Get Out (2017)- Directed and written by Jordan Peele. Horror seems to be an excellent medium to describe racism and it's somewhat amazing how obvious it seems in hindsight. One of the best debuts of a director in recent times, with a script that amps up the tension marvelously and serves up a twist in the tale that was impossible to see coming. Normally horror movies are seen as niche, but this film was popular with the wide audience and also at the award ceremonies further proving everyone was able to be captured by the film's quality. There has been talk of the film fitting into horror-comedy, probably due to Peele's comedy background, but while it is never laughably funny but does serve as a clever satire on the state of racial affairs. 12. The Death of Stalin (2017) - Directed by Armando Iannuci. Written by Armando Iannuci, David Schneider and Ian Martin. Few topics are as ripe for satire as the workings of communist governments (provided one can

Best Films of the Decade - 2010s - Second Part

As always, a giant list. The first 10 can be pretty much interchangeable depending on my mood. 21. John Wick (2014) - Directed by Chad Stalehski . Written by Derek Kolstad. Keanu Reeves already had experience as the face of an action franchise but it's possible in the future that we remember more for John Wick than as Neo. A film that came out of almost nowhere and managed to simultaneously be a homage and a way forward for action movies. Building off of an extensive source of knowledge of the films of John Woo, Jean Pierre Melville, anime and spaghetti westerns, it's the closest anyone has come to replicating the Gun-Fu Hong Kong classics. The well crafted world of John Wick keeps expanding too, with even more additions to the series in the works. Long may it continue. 22. Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - Directed by Denis Villeneuve . Written by Michael Green and Hampton Fancher. A sequel to one of the most beloved and acclaimed sci-film films of

a blog about a lot of things

Search This Blog