walkincooler
Cityscape Skin
It's like we're not even trying.
Posts: 18
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Post by walkincooler on May 5, 2010 18:18:23 GMT -5
Ok, so after 2 years of almost devotional Hold Steady listening, I have long ago decided that Craig Finn is by far the most talented lyricist currently producing music. Basically, anything he does, any direction that he decides to attempt, I (almost instinctively) declare it brilliant.
I was wondering, however: would you guys happen to know of any authors that have a comperable style to Finn? By this time in modern literature, nothing is new, so I assume that there has to be a novelist or essayist out there somewhere with a comperable style or deliver.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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mcstevepants
Hoodrat
Shaky but still tryin' to shake it.
Posts: 400
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Post by mcstevepants on May 5, 2010 18:25:06 GMT -5
The only thing that comes to mind is that scottish auther who wrote Trainspotting...having a brainfart at the moment...
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Mahoney
True Scene Leader
"you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows"
Posts: 587
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Post by Mahoney on May 5, 2010 18:26:45 GMT -5
I was astonished, and really enjoyed Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. You definately need patience, and probably won't understand everything, but it still fun. I don't think a book has ever taken me longer to read, but Pynchon's writing is genious. A lot of different characters that are seemingly unrelated, get linked into the story over the course of about 780 pages. Also, the book is written in sections, and it is amazin to read from the beginning of a section through many diversions within the section, to circle round back to the beginning, to end that section. Plenty of circles. It was fun though.
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Post by tvstimmyg on May 5, 2010 18:36:01 GMT -5
Jim Carroll seems somewhat obvious. "The Basketball Diaries" is a classic, but I'd recommend "Forced Entries" if you're looking for something Finn-like. Carroll passed away last year, but his first novel ("The Petting Zoo") will be published this fall. I'm really looking forward to reading it, as he'd been reading pieces from it for at least the last decade.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2010 18:41:22 GMT -5
John Darnielle from the Mountain Goats is as good as Craig, but the style is different
Craig reminds me alot of Hubert Selby Jr, who wrote Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream. same focus, same type of words
and lots of the early Beat stuff... there's a reason he mentions Kerouac. Ginsberg's Howl is pretty much perfect... hell i used to describe THS as a 'coked up Beat fronting a Springsteen cover band'
Nelson Algren's another one he mentions, and he fits as well
maybe hiphop/rap? not a fan myself, but the quick lyrical delivery, heavy references... hoodrat comes from rap slang...
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Post by doctoracula on May 5, 2010 18:42:13 GMT -5
james joyce, at least in the way that he'd throw a ton of references in his work on the assumption that everyone reading would know that stuff too
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2010 18:44:04 GMT -5
james joyce, at least in the way that he'd throw a ton of references in his work on the assumption that everyone reading would know that stuff too i was going to include him but i didn't! Ulysses isn't as scary as people think it is... start with that. you'll thank me later. just get a good annotated edition there's also Joyce's twin focuses - Catholocism and sex. sound familiar? |
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Post by doctoracula on May 5, 2010 18:47:09 GMT -5
to be fair, nelson algren is part of a reference to a dillinger four song
if paddy wrote a book, that'd be awesome
ulysses is probably the best book ever written. i'm so glad i read it while i was in dublin
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Mahoney
True Scene Leader
"you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows"
Posts: 587
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Post by Mahoney on May 5, 2010 19:01:08 GMT -5
james joyce, at least in the way that he'd throw a ton of references in his work on the assumption that everyone reading would know that stuff too i was going to include him but i didn't! Ulysses isn't as scary as people think it is... start with that. you'll thank me later. just get a good annotated edition there's also Joyce's twin focuses - Catholocism and sex. sound familiar? i would say start with portrait of an artist as a young man. But Ulysses is infanantly easier while reading along with the audio book. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2010 19:02:23 GMT -5
Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus are both nonfiction and do the IMPORTANCE of rock thing really well
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Mahoney
True Scene Leader
"you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows"
Posts: 587
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Post by Mahoney on May 5, 2010 19:02:59 GMT -5
Oh ya! check out Dharma Bums too, if you haven't. Everyone says On the Road is Kerouac's best, and i know taste is subjective, but i enjoyed Dharma Bums much more.
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Post by summer1988 on May 5, 2010 19:27:44 GMT -5
Tarantula
By B. Dylan
Read it over ten years ago, and don't really remember too much of it and should try it again if I have time but I do recall it had a different style
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Post by doctoracula on May 5, 2010 19:28:24 GMT -5
Tarantula By B. Dylan Read it over ten years ago, and don't really remember too much of it and should try it again if I have time but I do recall it had a different style i need to read this i loved chronicles, though i'm sure it's totally different dylan's one of the best storytellers |
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Post by WhiskeyDaisy on May 5, 2010 19:41:21 GMT -5
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But you have to read everything to get the connection to THS.
XO
WD
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2010 19:57:44 GMT -5
Chips Ahoy! reminded me of Barry Malzberg's 'Overlay', one of the grimmest unknown sci-fi novels ever. an alien fucks with Earth by playing with the minds of a bunch of no-hoper horse gamblers. like Chips Ahoy!, only a zillion times grimmer
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Post by howitfeels on May 5, 2010 20:09:34 GMT -5
Not really comparable but read anything and everything David Foster Wallace has written.
Be amazed.
Thank me and recommend to others.
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walkincooler
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It's like we're not even trying.
Posts: 18
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Post by walkincooler on May 5, 2010 21:35:09 GMT -5
Wow, thanks guys! Within 3 hours, I already have enough reading ideas to probably last me the entire summer. (Quick bit of irony: the friend of mine who originally burned me BaGiA is the same friend who gave me Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Chronicle of a Death Foretold". The taste is similar, I suppose).
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Post by laurenjean on May 5, 2010 22:29:10 GMT -5
Tonight at supper we were comparing THS lyrics and Louise Erdrich's novels. They share an unreliable narrator, non-linear timelines, Midwestern locations, and an abundance of Catholic imagery.
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Post by crimenotes on May 5, 2010 22:42:42 GMT -5
The closest comparison I have is "Beautiful Children" by Charles Bock, about burnouts, druggies, strippers and runaways in Vegas. Bock said that he listened to Appetite For Destruction while writing it, but it comes off like he had a direct line to Charlemagne and Holly. It could have been trite and cliche, but he pulls it off incredibly well, and is a thrilling writer.
"Rule of the Bone" by Russell Banks is also in the THS ballpark.
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Post by guiltyfeat on May 5, 2010 23:32:05 GMT -5
The first time I listened to Separation Sunday, I thought it reminded me a ton of Flannery O'Connor. Her short stories anthology is mandatory.
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toastie
Sniffling Indie Kid
Posts: 159
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Post by toastie on May 6, 2010 4:28:14 GMT -5
Oh ya! check out Dharma Bums too, if you haven't. Everyone says On the Road is Kerouac's best, and i know taste is subjective, but i enjoyed Dharma Bums much more. I always thought Dharma Bums was a heavy going book but that's me. Irvene Welsh wrote trainspotting. Going off the top of my head: Kerouac Bukowski Welsh Thomson |
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seann
Clever Kid
Posts: 125
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Post by seann on May 6, 2010 4:38:13 GMT -5
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But you have to read everything to get the connection to THS. XO WD Love in the Time of Cholera is one of my favorite books, but I never made a connection between Marquez and Finn/THS. You make an interesting point though. Are you thinking about the romantic mysticism/magic stuff (esp. 100 years), or something else? |
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terry
Cityscape Skin
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Post by terry on May 6, 2010 5:07:44 GMT -5
John K. Samson
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Post by WhiskeyDaisy on May 6, 2010 5:46:30 GMT -5
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But you have to read everything to get the connection to THS. XO WD Love in the Time of Cholera is one of my favorite books, but I never made a connection between Marquez and Finn/THS. You make an interesting point though. Are you thinking about the romantic mysticism/magic stuff (esp. 100 years), or something else? Love in the Time of Cholera is one of my favs too. One of few books I've read more than once. I'm really making a point of how everything he writes fits together, it references itself and it references his other works. Each story or novel is fantastic and can be read and understood as it stands. However, when you put them all together, they all blend into each other and work together. Sort of like some albums/songs I know. XOWD |
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Post by massiveknight on May 6, 2010 7:45:48 GMT -5
THIS John K Samson is the Canadian Craig Finn, and The Weakerthans are the folk rock version of the Hold Steady. As for writers I always enjoyed Bukowski, Chuck Pahalniuk and Chuck Klosterman. |
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