The Classics
91Bump. This is a great thread.
simmo wrote:Someone make my carrot and grapefruits smoke. Please.
The Classics
92Title: On the Road
Author: Jack Kerouac
Summary/Description: Sal Paradise and his friend/hero Dean Moriarity travel the country and get involved with all kinds of schemes, women, and jazz. Sal confronts his own problems which are the also the problems of so many other Americans, whilst Dean seems to not have a care in the world. They share glorious successes and brutal failures with one another, and take long, incredible trips around 1950's America.
Importance: Introduced the world to a new generation of writers, singlehandedly demolished the preestablished format of the novel (although I believe that was done by Henry Miller in France with Tropic of Cancer), and showed a side of the United States not often seen by many but felt deeply by all.
Author: Jack Kerouac
Summary/Description: Sal Paradise and his friend/hero Dean Moriarity travel the country and get involved with all kinds of schemes, women, and jazz. Sal confronts his own problems which are the also the problems of so many other Americans, whilst Dean seems to not have a care in the world. They share glorious successes and brutal failures with one another, and take long, incredible trips around 1950's America.
Importance: Introduced the world to a new generation of writers, singlehandedly demolished the preestablished format of the novel (although I believe that was done by Henry Miller in France with Tropic of Cancer), and showed a side of the United States not often seen by many but felt deeply by all.
The Classics
93Title: Life and Fate
Author: Vasily Grossman
Synopsis: Socialist-realist epic drama, that compares life caught between two opposing totalitarian regimes. Concerns the fate of Russians and Jews in the face of Fascist cruelty, whilst under the whip-hand of Stalin, fighting to defend Russia. All based on Grossman's first-hand experiences as a Soviet war correspondent.
Importance: A reflection on the spirit of man and the nature of freedom in extremis. A message for subsequent generations, much like Primo Levi's If This Is a Man or Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago.
Grossman died without seeing it published.
Author: Vasily Grossman
Synopsis: Socialist-realist epic drama, that compares life caught between two opposing totalitarian regimes. Concerns the fate of Russians and Jews in the face of Fascist cruelty, whilst under the whip-hand of Stalin, fighting to defend Russia. All based on Grossman's first-hand experiences as a Soviet war correspondent.
Importance: A reflection on the spirit of man and the nature of freedom in extremis. A message for subsequent generations, much like Primo Levi's If This Is a Man or Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago.
Grossman died without seeing it published.