Rate all of their books (1 Viewer)

The Wasp Factory - 7
Consider Phlebas - 6
Against A Dark Background - I don't think this was great but I can't remember
Complicity - 8
Whit - 8.5
Feersum Endjinn - 9
Excession - 9
Look To Windward - 7
The Algebraist - 0 (this made me wonder if all his other books were shit and I just didn't notice at the time, but I enjoyed them when I read them)
 
Meg Rosoff

How I Live Now (2004) - 9
Just in Case (2006) - 6.5
What I Was (2007) - 10
The Bride's Farewell (2009) - 9
There Is No Dog (2011) -5
 
Don Delillo


I cant remember why I hated Ratner's Star so much, maybe it was just the wrong time for me and that book, or I didn't get it. I should give Libra a go.


Here's my DeLillo, from what I've read.
I prefer the five star review but screw it.

Endzone - 9
Americana - 8
White Noise - 7
Libra - 7
Mao II - 6
Cosmopolis - 6
Falling Man - 6

Next up will be either Great Jones Street, or the collected stories The Angel Esmeralda.

Can't say if I'll ever read Ratner's Star.

I think his really early stuff might be the best as the style was fresher and probably more incomplete. I mean it's less boxed-off, the style isn't quite as tight. Endzone is by far my favourite and is probably due a re-read as that rating is quite stale tbh. I think by the time you get to Falling Man, you could almost read it as a DeLillo self-parody; he may have written in his sleep.

Paul Auster (once again some of these "ratings' are based on readings that are over ten years old):

The New York Trilogy - 5
The Music of Chance - 8 (this was the first. This is probably the best-written and least transparent of his 'idea' novels. Transparency is a major problem with this boy.)
Mr. Vertigo - 7
Moon Palace - 6
Leviathan - 7
The Brooklyn Follies - 5 (pretty generous rating)

Auster can weave a pretty good yarn; he should just give up the 'novelist of ideas' business and leave it to his good mate DeLillo. When I'm fed up with reading challenging stuff, I tend to go to Auster for a bit of a veg out.

Saul Bellow:

Dangling Man - 7
The Victim - 8
The Adventures of Augie March - 7
Henderson the Rain King - 10
Herzog -6
Mr. Sammler's Planet - 8
Humboldt's Gift - 10
Ravelstein - 1 (Written in an elder state so I'll let him off. Still one of the biggest pieces of shit to ever cross my eyes for an extended period of time.)


John Cheever:

The Wapshot Chronicle - 8
The Wapshot Scandal - 7
Bullet Park - 10
Falconer - 9
The Collected Stories - 9 (10 at his best, there are a few duds in here, but the best of these stories are peerless.)

Hands down the most consistent American fiction writer I've had the good fortune to read. Bullet Park is embarrassingly good.

Raymond Carver:

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? - 8
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - 9
Cathedral - 10
Elephant - 10
Best to give the poetry a miss from the little I've read.

William Maxwell:

They Came Like Swallows - 9
The Folded Leaf - 7
Time Will Darken It - 8
So Long, See You Tomorrow - 7
 
Excellent - that was one I was waiting for. Have only read Just in Case, but knew there was better...

her last novel was so weak (IMHO; it got good reviews) that i've started to doubt I ever liked her stuff D:
 
Bret Easton Ellis

Less Than Zero - 7
The Informers - 5
Rules of Attraction - 7
American Psycho - 10
Glamorama - 8
Lunar Park - 9
Imperial Bedrooms - 4


Since I can do this one:

Less Than Zero - 8
The Informers - 4
Rules of Attraction - 9
American Psycho - 10
Glamorama - 7
Lunar Park - 9
Imperial Bedroom -5
 
W.G. Sebald

These ratings only indicate how I'd compare my enjoyment of one book to the others of the same authors books, some of them I read years and years ago. It's only a bit of craic, like. A good few books mentioned here are now on my list.
 

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