Posted by Mr Beev on October 12, 2002, at 16:43:16
In reply to Excellent book. » Mr Beev, posted by BeardedLady on October 12, 2002, at 10:00:42
> After I read _The Stranger_, I read everything by Camus. I love existentialist fiction. Try Paul Auster, or see the movie made from his book, _The Music of Chance_, with Mandy Patinkin (!) and James Spader. It's brilliant, if a little slow.
Thank you for the recommendations; I shall look them up. Perhaps Mandy yodels out some classic broadway tunes in the film? I am not familiar with Mr Auster though I have heard the name - I fear my acquaintance with belles lettres is but a patchwork.
As I deliquesce into my dotage, I find I prefer the non-fiction of Camus to his fiction. In addition to 'Myth', 'The Rebel' is also quite stimulating, though by no means a light read.
For existential fiction, I do enjoy Dostoyevsky, who is sometimes accounted the 'first existentialist'. His late novels teem with characters, virtually all of whom possess a myriad of mental disorders - or so it appears to me. Furthermore, as the novels progress, most of the characters seem to achieve a feverish collective insanity. Whilst musing in a state of supine indolence one eve, I had the amusing notion of having open before me a novel of D. on the one hand, and the DSM-IV on the other, and I would then attempt to diagnose each of the characters!
Mr Beev
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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20021010/msgs/31102.html