or, the novels that popped into my head during the fifteen minutes I gave myself to write this, along with a few I thought of later that I couldn’t bear not putting in, all listed in alphabetical order because if I put them “in no particular order” everyone would think I was endorsing the ones that happened to be on top, which I wouldn’t have been, because basically I think anyone who likes novels would enjoy reading any of the following:
- A Bend in the River
- Absurdistan
- A Fine Balance
- Animal’s People
- A Soldier of the Great War
- Barney’s Version
- Billy Bathgate
- Black Bird
- Buddha of Suburbia
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
- City of Thieves
- Cloud Atlas
- Crackpot
- Fifth Business
- Gould’s Book of Fish
- Heliopolis
- Life of Pi
- Little Big Man
- Lolita
- MAUS
- Me Cheetah
- Midaq Alley
- Middlesex
- Moor’s Last Sigh
- Nobody’s Fool
- Red Grass River
- Skippy Dies
- Stones From The River
- Super Sad True Love Story
- The Adventures of Cavalier and Kay
- The Dork of Cork
- The Lizard Cage
- The Little Girl Who Was Too Afraid of Matches
- The Lonely Polygamist
- The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
- The Ordinary Seaman
- The Rotter’s Club
- The Secret History
- The Thought Club
- Waterland