Nathan "N.R."’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2012)

Nathan "N.R."’s comments from the Completists' Club group.

Dharmakirti wrote: "I have White Noise and Underworld sitting on my shelf at home. Any suggestions as to which one I should read first?"

As one who himself relies extensively upon rumor, I'd say White Noise first ; probably because it seems to be the more centrally located DeLillo, the less ambiguously 'important' (remove quotes!). I mean, it's representative of something.

Aidan wrote: "another hefty tome of delillo's is ratner's star, which is a sort of cult favorite, i gather. "

I've got Libra and Ratner's lined up as DeLillo 2 & 3 ; but I want to get my pro/con vote in on Underworld first (you know it'll be pro!)

You mean there's been no DeLillo thread all these years!?

I might end up with DeLillo=Completionization, so I'll keep score here ::


Americana (1971)
End Zone (1972)
Great Jones Street (1973)
Ratner's Star (1976) -- my next DeLillo?
Players (1977)
Running Dog (1978)
Amazons (1980) (under pseudonym "Cleo Birdwell")
The Names (1982)
White Noise (1985)
Libra (1988) -- or else this as my Next?
Mao II (1991)
Underworld (1997)
The Body Artist (2001)
Cosmopolis (2003)
Falling Man (2007)
Point Omega (2010)
The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories (2011)

Aidan wrote: "can i say i'm on a completist binge if i've only read four novels so far? lolita, invitation to a beheading, the luzhin defense, the real life of sebastian knight & currently in the midst of bend s..."

Binge or sprint. Depends on which Greek House you belong to. Yep. Get on that Nabbokov train....

Elizabeth wrote: "I think I got distracted by F.W.!!!"

!

Yep, that'll happen.

Toni Morrison? I'm almost dead certain someone's completed her works or is headed thence. Anyone please to start her thread?

Elizabeth wrote: "other crime genre"

I think maybe our Snobbish Originator of Our Sacred Order of Completionism has for one reason or another ban'd the genre's. Or, in the Words of the Rules :: "No populists like Jodi Picoult, Steven King, Dan Brown, etc shall be mentioned herein." I'm not saying anything either way. ; )

MJ wrote: "Jonathan just got completionjacked."

!!!

This kind of one=upmanship is absolutely (yes!) endorsed in our Braggadocio!(!!!)

Elizabeth wrote: "James Joyce (including letters and critical writings, poems etc.) , Emile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Jane Austen, the 3 Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter & William Shakespeare."

!!!!!

Jonathan wrote: "COMPLETIONISED! "

!!!

Wish all these other scurvy books might remove themselves to clear a path back to my mini-mountain of Joe. Damn.

Jonathan wrote: "Just completed McElroy"

!!!

I can do this!!

The Freelance Pallbearers, 1967
Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down, 1969
Mumbo Jumbo, 1972
The Last Days of Louisiana Red, 1974
Flight to Canada, 1976
The Terrible Twos, 1982
Reckless Eyeballing, 1986
The Terrible Threes, 1989 -- on deck
Japanese by Spring, 1993
Juice!, 2011

Nate D wrote: "skipped over an important detail there: no W&M, just Lookout Cartridge, but it sounds pretty interesting."

oh yes indeed. I'm much looking forward to Lookout ; I assume it would have been his masterpiece had he not written W&M.

Nate D wrote: "A couple weeks ago, I found a nice old hardcover (first edition?!) on the street in a box outside the grocery store. So that will be the first of these that I read."

W&M? (!)

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Intended, also, is completionism of all authors indicated here, with the likely exception of Richard Powers, but he may eventually tag along as well."

So, for author completionizism of this set, The Score ::

John Barth
William Gaddis
Robert Coover
Thomas Pynchon -- just that outstanding rereading of M&D
D Keith Mano
David Foster Wallace
William H Gass
Richard Powers -- still not committed to him yet.
Alexander Theroux
William T. Vollmann
Joseph McElroy

Up next is either Coover McElroy. Maybe Pynchon. I really don't know what's happened to Gass ; I feel prodigal.

Jonathan wrote: "So I still have some way to go...I am prioritising completing McElroy this year so may not get through all of Mano before 2015 "

You've only got about a week's worth of reading left. Just that I'd had Mano on the shelf for well over a year and thought it about time to get back to him.

MJ wrote: "Congrats. I have to confess, I read thirty or so pages of Topless and found workmanlike prose and not very appealing content. If the choir insists, I might try another."

Sounds about right.

Prose-wise, I think Goth and Proselytizer come closest to the Take Five stuff. War has a wonderful kind of bleakness about it.

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "My Score

Bishop's Progress
Horn
War is Heaven
The Death and Life of Harry Goth
The Proselytizer
The Bridge
Take Five
Topless
The Fergus Dialogues: A Meditation on the Gender of Christ"

And so I've Completionizerentiert D Keith Mano. Take Five is the obvious fav. But all the others too. Can't really say much more about top favs. Perhaps Goth or Fergus would be up there. I wouldn't say his knot=Take Five books are world class stuff, but they're all pretty short, good, and diverse ; and since he's BURIED, completionizing is thus a Sacred Service. Watch for Friend Jonathan's impending Service.

Ishmael Reed, Jazz, Poetry & Festival! This weekend! San Francisco!

"SFJazz Poetry Festival spotlights U.S. ethnicities"
http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/S...

If you go :: SFJazz Poetry Festival: 7 and 8:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 5:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday. $15. SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F. (886) 920-5299. www.sfjazz.org.

Score update :: I've got six Coovers remaining, inclusive of the forthcoming expanded edition of In Bed One Night, and Other Brief Encounters. Brunist Day of Wrath got knocked out the day before today's release! And it's excellent.