Some of my favourite novels

As I am working my way back into producing content I thought that I would start off with something that a lot of people ask me about, but that I find very difficult to answer on the spot. So in no particular order and in full confidence that there are plenty of others not included that I love equally as much or even more, let me take you through why these are some of my favourite novels.

©Random House

Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West - Cormac McCarthy

I've long been a fan of McCarthy's mixture of bleak, nihilistic and cynical stories with a sparse, skeletal and minimalist writing style, and for me Blood Meridian just can't be topped. No Country For Old Men, The Road and Outer Dark jostle for second place in my favourite McCarthy novel but I can't go past what is quite possibly his most pessimistic and subversive novel in his career so far. This quintessential Western also happens to be a scathing anti-Western full of impenetrable characters, stomach churning violence and enough nihilism to make his other work pale in comparison (which is saying something when this is the same author that wrote Child of God and Outer Dark). The book follows "the kid", a teenager that travels on horseback with the Glanton gang (a real historical group) as they traverse the Texas-Mexico borderlands in the 1850s hunting Native Americans for the bounties on their scalps. Judge Holden is one of the most imposing and terrifying villains in literature, a huge, intelligent, multi-talented member of the gang. One of my favourite passages in any book comes from him when one of the other gang members about his habit of sketching animals yet undiscovered, he replies: "whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent." Good Lord. In fact, is bears questioning; is The Judge God? Or Satan? Who knows. There is so much I love about this book; the setting; McCarthy's poetic sensibilities as he paints its picture; the dialogue; the literary references (including an incredibly profound and beautiful reference to Milton's Paradise Lost); the brutal and sometimes biblical depictions of violence; the characters (in particular the Kid and the Judge). I often wonder if this is actually the best book ever written, and depending on the day I could well answer that question with an obviously, yes. Read it. Now. 

©Simon and Schuster

Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis

For me this is the defining coming of age novel of my youth. I love this book not only because of the effect it has on me as a reader, but also as a writer. In fact I would say that no other book or author has influenced my writing more than Bret Easton Ellis and his debut novel Less Than Zero. It is sharp, sarcastic, hilarious, shocking, terrifying and sometimes frustrating, but underneath all of it is a constant undercurrent of incredibly rich and unshakable melancholy. The fact that this was his first published novel when he was only 21 astounds me and fills me with unbearable envy given how assured and straight up savage his writing is. Less Than Zero follows Clay, a rich 18 year old returning to LA in the '80s for his winter break. We follow him as he wonders through a life of drugs, partying, casual sex and spending money, all the while reminiscing on his past and coming to terms with a loss of faith in his friends. By the end of the novel the shock value that Ellis came to be synonymous with surfaces, but in a way that is indicative of his ability to touch the nerve of so many people's disenchantment with culture and society - mine included. It is much more accessible than his most (in)famous novel American Psycho, and significantly shorter too. I can't recommend this book enough, and if you were to swap out the pop culture references for more relevant equivalents of today you would be able to say that it was written this year without anyone batting an eyelid. 

©Random House

House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski

You have never read a book like this before. Guaranteed. This book broke my mind. A few times. Here's my best attempt at explaining it. We read a tattoo artist named Johnny's notes and annotations on an academic study of a film called 'The Navidson Record', about a family whose house begins to expand from the inside, producing hallways and doors that should not exist by normal laws of rationality. Johnny found this paper in Zampano's flat after he is found deceased. Oh yeah, and Zampano was blind. We read the book in different fonts for the different narrators, with extensive notations, footnotes and asides, and if that wasn't enough, the book literally begins to expand and shrink and shift and warp like the inside of the Navidsons' home. Not only is House of Leaves fun to read in its form and presentation, but it will keep you up at night. And this is before its plot twists that literally recontextualise the entire book. It is mind blowing in every sense - as a piece of horror fiction, in its form and presentation, in its narrative structure. If you give yourself in to it and dive in completely you will be picking up clues and hints and links and references more and more as you reread it (which I guarantee you will need to do as soon as you finish it). 

©Fancis Cugat

The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

It's a classic for a reason, and there are passages in this novel that still give me shivers even after at least ten times reading it. If you have any interest at all in books and literature, then you must read this. But of course a book being a classic doesn't automatically translate into me liking it, and so just as important is the emotional impact that it had on me and undoubtably will on you. So often misremembered as a story about glorifying the American dream and the excess that came with it, the sadness and undeniable relevance it holds today still rings true. For you non-readers, it's short so there's no excuse - you must read this at some point in your life. 

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Enough said. 

©Taplinger Publishing
Company

Silence - Shusaku Endo

You may have seen the recent film adaptation from Martin Scorsese with Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, which does a pretty fantastic job of translating the story and themes of Silence to the screen, but the way Endo's novel engages in the internal struggle of Sebastiao Rodrigues simply cannot be adapted outside of the medium of print. Silence follows two Portuguese Jesuit priests as they venture into hostile Japan in 1639 to assist the local church and find their mentor, Ferriera, who has disappeared amidst rumours that he has committed apostasy. The novel grapples with the eternal question of the silence of God amidst terrible suffering, a question that I and many others are not a stranger to. Something about the hypnotic style of writing, like the bobbing of a boat in the dark, completely enraptured me. It's bleak, tense, devastating, profound, difficult, and beautifully written. 

Hit me up in the comments if you want to have a chat about any of these books, I'd love to hear some of your thoughts. If any of these have peaked your interest, please go and read them! Go to a library or a book store and find it, make yourself a coffee, sit in the sunlight and read it. The practice of reading is one that centres me in my day, and I really do think that it helps sharpen you as well as being endlessly enjoyable. So yeah, those are some of my favourite novels - I swear by all of them. Thanks to the people that have been asking me, feel free to keep asking questions like that because it gives me a good excuse to get behind a keyboard and talk about myself on the internet. 

Have a good one!

Jonty