Thank you so much for sharing!! Had no idea some of these books were written in my birth year. There are some here I haven't heard and can't wait to read.
"Bright Lights, Big City" is a phrase I say to my son all the time when we're out and about (we live in Chicago...so maybe not as bright as New York City lights, but still pretty bright). When he was about five, he started responding with "Dim Lights, Small Town." I guess I should read it!
Good! Maybe you can help spread the word about this Substack--I'd love some more subscribers like you!
I'm going to include some "guilty pleasures" in a post later this summer--BLBC has been on that list for me. There's a certain fascination when a book's central character is a train wreck in progress--Leaving Las Vegas and Trainspotting would be a couple more examples . . . we love to watch but don't wish to actually be them. Sometimes a character will be a rogue of one sort or another, like Gully Jimson in The Horse's Mouth . . . or a basically unlikable figure, which can be nicely comic, as in Sara Levine's, Treasure Island!!! My favorite current example is Ottessa Mossfegh's narrator in My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Really a terrible person, but you can't stop listening to her. A hoot.
Just shared a Community Post with a link to your Substack on my (very tiny) YouTube channel. I know a bunch of great readers on YouTube who would love your corner of Substack! Thanks again for the incredible list!
My favorite Amis books are probably The Information and his memoir Experience. Time's Arrow also really engrossed me - I remember my dad reading it before I did and saying it gave him unsettling dreams.
This is such a good list - I hadn't realized all these books were published in 1984 - what a solid literary year.
In college, the year I studied in Strasbourg, the film version of The Lover was released, and I was obsessed with it and the book. When I assigned it nearly 20 years later to an undergraduate literature class, I realized it was much different than I remembered it - more fractured, non-linear, a wild book.
Thank you so much for sharing!! Had no idea some of these books were written in my birth year. There are some here I haven't heard and can't wait to read.
"Bright Lights, Big City" is a phrase I say to my son all the time when we're out and about (we live in Chicago...so maybe not as bright as New York City lights, but still pretty bright). When he was about five, he started responding with "Dim Lights, Small Town." I guess I should read it!
Thanks again for sharing this wonderful list!
Good! Maybe you can help spread the word about this Substack--I'd love some more subscribers like you!
I'm going to include some "guilty pleasures" in a post later this summer--BLBC has been on that list for me. There's a certain fascination when a book's central character is a train wreck in progress--Leaving Las Vegas and Trainspotting would be a couple more examples . . . we love to watch but don't wish to actually be them. Sometimes a character will be a rogue of one sort or another, like Gully Jimson in The Horse's Mouth . . . or a basically unlikable figure, which can be nicely comic, as in Sara Levine's, Treasure Island!!! My favorite current example is Ottessa Mossfegh's narrator in My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Really a terrible person, but you can't stop listening to her. A hoot.
Just shared a Community Post with a link to your Substack on my (very tiny) YouTube channel. I know a bunch of great readers on YouTube who would love your corner of Substack! Thanks again for the incredible list!
You're an angel!
My favorite Amis books are probably The Information and his memoir Experience. Time's Arrow also really engrossed me - I remember my dad reading it before I did and saying it gave him unsettling dreams.
This is such a good list - I hadn't realized all these books were published in 1984 - what a solid literary year.
In college, the year I studied in Strasbourg, the film version of The Lover was released, and I was obsessed with it and the book. When I assigned it nearly 20 years later to an undergraduate literature class, I realized it was much different than I remembered it - more fractured, non-linear, a wild book.