Book Recommendation for a Moving Friend
December 17, 2015 5:26 AM Subscribe
A friend is (probably temporarily) moving to England from the US and I would like to get her a book. Her two favorites are One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Dispossessed. Something that is set in or otherwise features England would be a bonus. Any recommendations? Thanks!
For lighter but extended reading, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Lanark is by a Scottish writer, but to us Americans it's all the same, right? No, seriously, it's a great, weird book.
David Peace's 1984 is pretty brutal but really worth reading.
Nights At The Circus is a lovely book with some anarchists in it - pay attention to the bombe surprise!
Lark Rise To Candleford is a semi-memoir by a more fabian sort of socialist. It's one of my favorite comfort reads.
When The Lights Went Out: Britain In The Seventies is an extremely engaging, readable counter-history that is definitely as gripping as your average novel.
Doris Lessing wrote a number of interesting books about, sort of, England, many left wing (although beware the rightward drift). The Children of Violence series and Diary of A Good Neighbor are two of my favorites.
Bleak House is awfully good and somewhat Marquezian in its large bizarre sprawl.
While I would not vouch for her politics, I have always enjoyed Margaret Drabble's novels while dealing with planes and strange places - I like her earlier ones, Jerusalem The Golden and The Radiant Way in particular.
But for spooky, now that I think about it, you should get her W G Sebald The Rings of Saturn, which is...very difficult to describe, actually, but wonderfully educational, thought-promoting and about England, somewhat.
Oooooh, also, no, this is what you should get her if she likes The Dispossessed - it won't comfort her precisely, but it's about England, and it's dazzling: The Viriconium books.
But for happy-making radical SF, get her China Mieville's novel The Scar. It has aspects of Being About England, but it is also an uplifting novel of a pirate city.
posted by Frowner at 5:54 AM on December 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
Lanark is by a Scottish writer, but to us Americans it's all the same, right? No, seriously, it's a great, weird book.
David Peace's 1984 is pretty brutal but really worth reading.
Nights At The Circus is a lovely book with some anarchists in it - pay attention to the bombe surprise!
Lark Rise To Candleford is a semi-memoir by a more fabian sort of socialist. It's one of my favorite comfort reads.
When The Lights Went Out: Britain In The Seventies is an extremely engaging, readable counter-history that is definitely as gripping as your average novel.
Doris Lessing wrote a number of interesting books about, sort of, England, many left wing (although beware the rightward drift). The Children of Violence series and Diary of A Good Neighbor are two of my favorites.
Bleak House is awfully good and somewhat Marquezian in its large bizarre sprawl.
While I would not vouch for her politics, I have always enjoyed Margaret Drabble's novels while dealing with planes and strange places - I like her earlier ones, Jerusalem The Golden and The Radiant Way in particular.
But for spooky, now that I think about it, you should get her W G Sebald The Rings of Saturn, which is...very difficult to describe, actually, but wonderfully educational, thought-promoting and about England, somewhat.
Oooooh, also, no, this is what you should get her if she likes The Dispossessed - it won't comfort her precisely, but it's about England, and it's dazzling: The Viriconium books.
But for happy-making radical SF, get her China Mieville's novel The Scar. It has aspects of Being About England, but it is also an uplifting novel of a pirate city.
posted by Frowner at 5:54 AM on December 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
Pavane by Keith Roberts
posted by crocomancer at 5:54 AM on December 17, 2015
posted by crocomancer at 5:54 AM on December 17, 2015
Little, Big by John Crowley
posted by matildaben at 6:55 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by matildaben at 6:55 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
If she's moving to London or in the vicinity, Un Lun Dun by China Mieville or the Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovitch. Actually, whereever she's moving, the Rivers of London books.
posted by Vortisaur at 6:57 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Vortisaur at 6:57 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
AS Byatt's 'Possession' - quintessentially, wonderfully English.
Also, David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green' – '80s England at its finest.
And of course, if she likes 'The Dispossessed', she may well love the marvellous Philip Pullman 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, which is in part set in a fantasy version of Oxford.
posted by considerthelilies at 7:00 AM on December 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
Also, David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green' – '80s England at its finest.
And of course, if she likes 'The Dispossessed', she may well love the marvellous Philip Pullman 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, which is in part set in a fantasy version of Oxford.
posted by considerthelilies at 7:00 AM on December 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
hmmm. i'm not sure what the intersection of ursula le guin and gabriel garcia marquez is. perhaps "good" writing with a "twist"? if so, david mitchell seems like an obvious choice. however, his most english work, black swan green has the least "fireworks" of any.
i'll also second two authors already mentioned. john m harrison is a good writer, although i've not read virconium. and w g sebald, although german, has something to say about the english countryside.
and lanark is very definitely not english.
on preview: damn. and possession is excellent too.
posted by andrewcooke at 7:02 AM on December 17, 2015
i'll also second two authors already mentioned. john m harrison is a good writer, although i've not read virconium. and w g sebald, although german, has something to say about the english countryside.
and lanark is very definitely not english.
on preview: damn. and possession is excellent too.
posted by andrewcooke at 7:02 AM on December 17, 2015
Hmm ... so her faves are philosophically-inclined SFF from the 60's and 70's, with the added qualifier of being set in England?
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
posted by kyrademon at 7:15 AM on December 17, 2015
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
posted by kyrademon at 7:15 AM on December 17, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks everybody, and keep them coming, of course. I have some homework to do!
posted by mustardayonnaise at 7:40 AM on December 17, 2015
posted by mustardayonnaise at 7:40 AM on December 17, 2015
I recently quite enjoyed The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, which seems to fit your requirements.
posted by ferret branca at 7:41 AM on December 17, 2015
posted by ferret branca at 7:41 AM on December 17, 2015
I love One Hundred Years of Solitude and I thought The Satanic Verses shared some common qualities, and is set (partly) in London.
posted by telegraph at 7:57 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by telegraph at 7:57 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Never Let Me Go," by Kazuo Ishiguro. Dystopian fiction, set in England. Should have won the Man Booker that year, in my opinion. (Sorry, am on phone and can't link.)
posted by holborne at 8:01 AM on December 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by holborne at 8:01 AM on December 17, 2015 [6 favorites]
I'll second Never Let Me Go. It's a great book, and I found it very engrossing.
I've never read The Dispossessed, but I have read (and loved) One Hundred Years of Solitude, and based on that, I would recommend Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. Both of these books have elements of magical realism. They also both feature framing and themes of the story tie in to some aspects of the cultures history (Latin America for Marquez, and India for Rushdie). Salman Rushdie is also the author of The Satanic Verses, although I haven't read it.
She might also like The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. It's another novel with magical realism elements. It's set in the Soviet Union, not England, but it is one of my favorite books.
Oh, and the His Dark Materials trilogy mentioned upthread is another good recommendation. It's marketed as children's lit, but I read it for the first time as an adult and really enjoyed it.
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:35 AM on December 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
I've never read The Dispossessed, but I have read (and loved) One Hundred Years of Solitude, and based on that, I would recommend Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. Both of these books have elements of magical realism. They also both feature framing and themes of the story tie in to some aspects of the cultures history (Latin America for Marquez, and India for Rushdie). Salman Rushdie is also the author of The Satanic Verses, although I haven't read it.
She might also like The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. It's another novel with magical realism elements. It's set in the Soviet Union, not England, but it is one of my favorite books.
Oh, and the His Dark Materials trilogy mentioned upthread is another good recommendation. It's marketed as children's lit, but I read it for the first time as an adult and really enjoyed it.
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:35 AM on December 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
As an English expat, get her Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. It's written by a British/American who goes back to England. I think she'll love it and it will help her get used to some of the differences between the two places.
posted by shesbenevolent at 10:16 AM on December 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by shesbenevolent at 10:16 AM on December 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Yep... I think shesbenevolent nails it... Billl Bryson's Notes from a Small Island.
Wiki: In an opinion poll organised for World Book Day in 2003, Notes from a Small Island was voted by BBC Radio 4 listeners as the book which best represented Britain.
posted by Mister Bijou at 10:31 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Wiki: In an opinion poll organised for World Book Day in 2003, Notes from a Small Island was voted by BBC Radio 4 listeners as the book which best represented Britain.
posted by Mister Bijou at 10:31 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Came in to say Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, already referenced above.
posted by jbenben at 11:15 AM on December 17, 2015
posted by jbenben at 11:15 AM on December 17, 2015
Outside of the fiction arena: Robert Macfarlane's The Old Ways.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 12:22 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 12:22 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Another vote for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
posted by mark7570 at 12:31 PM on December 17, 2015
posted by mark7570 at 12:31 PM on December 17, 2015
If you want fiction, I second Among Others and Life After Life.
If you want nonfiction, Watching the English by Kate Fox is faaaaaascinating.
posted by exceptinsects at 3:47 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you want nonfiction, Watching the English by Kate Fox is faaaaaascinating.
posted by exceptinsects at 3:47 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway.
And/or The Map that Changed the World, as history is the "secret weapon of science fiction".
posted by clew at 8:17 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
And/or The Map that Changed the World, as history is the "secret weapon of science fiction".
posted by clew at 8:17 PM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by DigDoug at 5:51 AM on December 17, 2015 [2 favorites]