4.01 avg rating — 48,172 ratings

"one of my favorite novels, for its surreal, schizophrenic blend of tonality's (from low brow scatological humor, to song and dance numbers, to ruminations on complex mathematical equations, to laments on lost love worthy of Shakespeare), and its genuinely psychedelic cascade of characters, themes, and sentences that seem to run from one end of the universe to the other. No doubt the strangest world war 2 novel ever written. also how many books have an entire chapter dedicated to a sentient light bulb?"

4.39 avg rating — 385,794 ratings

4.29 avg rating — 1,078,543 ratings

"one of the most emotionally draining books i've ever read, the fact that dostoyevsky is able to make the reader feel real empathy for a seemingly irredeemable murderer is a testament to his greatness as an author. A a work of fiction it is at turns nail bitingly tense and heartrendingly tragic. "

3.91 avg rating — 75,426 ratings

"One of the funniest novels I've had the pleasure of reading. reads like a dark expressionistic parable about the nature of truth and our perpetual inability to grasp it. Surpasses even the trial in my book. "

4.21 avg rating — 28,197 ratings

"a tour de force, in many ways i prefer suttree to Blood Meridian, which i also consider a supreme masterwork. Suttree is a sort of bildungsroman, but one which also functions as a tragedy as well as a comedy of errors. Much of the sprawling biblical prose of Blood Meridian can already be seen at work here, where the events depicted are often grotesque, occasionally mundane, but are elevated to art by the quality of the writing. "

4.15 avg rating — 219,845 ratings

"An astonishing collision of biblical and apocalyptic imagery paint the west as one of Bosch's visions of hell. The orgiastic displays of violence that fill many of the pages leave little room for a romanticized view of the west. The Judge is of course the standout element as one of the most terrifying villains in the history of literature, but its the outstanding quality of prose that makes Blood Meridian the greatest novel ever written about the American west. also owes much to Moby Dick, and is rich with allusions to that novel"

4.18 avg rating — 47,822 ratings

"a definitive work of nihilist fiction. Drenched in bleak irony, the story of our "hero" bardamu's adventures in the first world war and subsequent voyages abroad are clearly the work of a bitter and cynical author who nonetheless manages to hit on several universal truths of human existence. "

4.16 avg rating — 68,279 ratings

"filled with a lucidity of thought rarely glimpsed, Proust seems able to grasp moments of supreme profundity out of the air as if it were the most natural thing in the world. the nature of memory and the experience of being alive are described with astonishing clarity. the madeleine passage still stands out as one of the most stunning moments in all of literature"

4.21 avg rating — 6,344 ratings

"Incredibly dense, full of rich descriptions, characters failing to connect on any meaningful level. deeply alone people, looking for the authentic in a sea of bad imitations and forgeries. A vast multilayered epic and what seems to me the archetypal post modern novel"

4.22 avg rating — 48,753 ratings

"with a structure oddly reminiscent of pulp fiction, 2666 took me by surprise with the staggering scope of the authors talent as well as his incredible empathy and humanity, which is what keeps some parts of the book from being rendered unreadable by the very nature of the events described. . the entire book is incredibly well written and memorable but the delve into magical realism in the last part of the book elevates it to one of the greatest works of the century thus far."

3.97 avg rating — 25,332 ratings

"Maybe not as wildly inventive as Gravitys Rainbow, but still a wonderful enigma in its own right. Pynchons talent for prose and character is already in full force here. As well as that trademark blend of comic and tragic that is what truly marks him out as one of the great novelists of the 20th century."

3.57 avg rating — 615,468 ratings

"arguably the great American novel, rich with symbolism, filled with a naturalistic beauty and an elegant verbosity that never obscures or hinders the narrative"

4.39 avg rating — 594,000 ratings

4.03 avg rating — 1,049,838 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 228,177 ratings

4.03 avg rating — 114,016 ratings

4.15 avg rating — 436,734 ratings

3.99 avg rating — 886,265 ratings

3.80 avg rating — 361,827 ratings

4.05 avg rating — 10,225 ratings

3.97 avg rating — 19,845 ratings

3.86 avg rating — 127,003 ratings

"a satirical skewering of the American consumer state of the 1980's that is also a deeply startling glimpse into death anxiety, among other interesting topics. "

4.25 avg rating — 101,397 ratings

3.95 avg rating — 88,238 ratings

3.33 avg rating — 8,000 ratings

3.94 avg rating — 394,625 ratings

3.46 avg rating — 98,569 ratings

3.86 avg rating — 3,607 ratings

4.13 avg rating — 1,875,429 ratings

3.69 avg rating — 97,305 ratings

4.20 avg rating — 5,452,923 ratings

4.04 avg rating — 2,182 ratings