People talk about "writing the Great American Novel." What do you think are valid examples of the G.A.N.? What novels, American or otherwise, did you enjoy reading and wish you had written?
posted by Busoni on Jun 20, 2009 - 70 answers

I crave a great novel that's as addictive as a popcorn movie. Please recommend me some literary page-turners. [more inside]
posted by Beardman on Jun 5, 2009 - 104 answers

Can anyone recommend good novels about gay people? Not just genre fiction but actually literature? It seems to me there must be, but I've never been able to find any.
posted by blue shadows on Dec 14, 2008 - 57 answers

Help me find this book! It's about a family, possibly from the North of the UK / Scotland, but the thing I remember most is one of the brothers travelling through South America. He washes up on a riverbank, plants almost grow up around him. Local indigenous people save him and he becomes a medicine man. [more inside]
posted by pipstar on Nov 18, 2008 - 0 answers

What are some vivid examples of nostalgia in film and literature? [more inside]
posted by Beardman on Oct 27, 2008 - 30 answers

Is there a reasonable English translation of Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" in the 1787 version? Thomas Carlyle and the nowadays authoritative translation by Burton Pike both used the 1774 version, but Goethe went thoroughly over it for his Complete Works. Online and printed editions fail in most cases to tell the version used. Can you recommend a book or even an online source?
posted by Wolfen on Sep 4, 2008 - 4 answers

Why do novelists use "________" in place of a character's name? [more inside]
posted by serazin on Aug 11, 2008 - 10 answers

I'm reading Richard Ford's A multitude of sins short stories collection, and I find it rather dull... (less powerful Raymond carver to me) but it seems that he's considered as a "master of the short story" (Esquire), "one of the country's best writers" (San Francisco chronicle)... Could you give me elements to modify my judgement ?
posted by nicolin on Aug 10, 2008 - 8 answers

I am trying to get a better understanding of Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" **Spoiler Alert** [more inside]
posted by madmamasmith on Jul 28, 2008 - 13 answers

What one book will allow others to gain the truest insight into the soul of each city or region [more inside]
posted by reenum on May 6, 2008 - 16 answers

What is the 19th Century illness that disfigures Esther Summerson of Dicken's Bleak House? [more inside]
posted by oneirodynia on Jan 6, 2008 - 9 answers

Literature filter: Novels in the form of a first-person diary (day-by-day entries, or entries set against calendar dates). Can you name any good examples, particularly contemporary? I'm aware that it was relatively common format in earlier novels (for example, Dracula). [more inside]
posted by long haired lover from liverpool on Dec 12, 2007 - 42 answers

I've just finished my first novel, now how do I revise this thing? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Sep 26, 2007 - 17 answers

Anybody know any good novels either about or a good chunk of which is set in the Caribbean? [more inside]
posted by Heminator on Mar 21, 2007 - 40 answers

Everybody hates this, but I need help identifying a book so I can "rebuild" a preteen, YAL library... [more inside]
posted by oflinkey on Jan 5, 2007 - 11 answers

Has Finnegans Wake ever been translated? How?
posted by dead_ on Oct 20, 2006 - 36 answers

Has anyone vastly improved -- or just changed -- someone else's already published writing by editing? [more inside]
posted by callmejay on Aug 30, 2006 - 25 answers