For me, it was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I suppose the poetry and plays we did in English class might have paved the way, but when I read Wuthering Heights....BAM! A beautifully written character-driven literary fiction novel I coul NOT get enough of. Too many themes to fully understand, from obssession to society to marriage to perception of reality to the wild nature of humanity to- *grin* Yes, I really do love this novel...how can you tell? =D
So, what about you? Which novel opened your eyes to the wonders of style, character, and themes that are, at the heart of it, truly inexplicable?
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0 / 50,000
Oct 7, 2008 - 12 18
I did enjoy Wuthering Heights. Grapes of Wrath, however, truly got me interested in literary fiction. Steinbeck has always been a favorite author of mine ever since I first read the novel in 8th grade. His use of the Bible to structure his chapters really opened my eyes to how a writer can weave his portrayals of humanity into the pages of a book.
0 / 50,000
Oct 7, 2008 - 16 23
Wuthering Heights isn't actually Literary Fiction. Literary Fiction is actually a fairly small genre of fiction, focused on style and character, in that order, over story. The idea of Literary Fiction is an outgrowth of Modernism, as a Literary Movement, influenced, in my opinion, by the growth of the 'pulp literature' industry, and Post-Modernism. The term was created as a marketing device in the early 1980's.
Most Literature is not Literary Fiction.
And to answer the question: It was American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis that interested me in Literature as a kind of concept/art.
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"I kill where I please because it is all mine."
------------------------------------------Ted Hughes
36,391 / 50,000
Oct 7, 2008 - 17 04
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston.
I had to read it for my Modern novel class. Still has one of my favourite paragraphs of all time in it. And of course, the protagonist is simply wonderful. It's one of those novels in which, for me, the plot is "life happened", but it swept me away.
----------Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada.
50 Stories; 1,000 words each... will I survive?
Current story:
26,331 / 50,000
Oct 7, 2008 - 17 05
I'm not quite sure Catcher in the Rye counts. I mean, I read it a long time ago, and seriously, I don't bother to classify what I read between mainstream fiction and literary fiction. But Catcher in the Rye really got me interested in character THOUGHTS than character ACTIONS. I was never really good at moving characters along on their own. So, the less "movement" that needs to be done, the happier I am.
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http://mywritingmind.blogspot.com
0 / 50,000
Oct 7, 2008 - 19 36
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett was one of the more recent literary novels that caught my attention, a heavily character-driven novel. I was reading simultaneously while writing my Nano last year and the issues it raised were a huge inspiration for me. Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk was also another one.
----------'o7 // forever blue : lit fic : 50,956 words
0 / 50,000
Oct 7, 2008 - 20 08
Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay."
----------www.redemptionfalls.com
3,415 / 50,000
Oct 8, 2008 - 10 20
It, by Stephen King. Definitely not lit fic, I know, but the reasons why I love it so much are because of just how awesome the characters are, and all the themes woven into the novel. While Kings novels do tend to be very plot-driven, his characterization is absolutely wonderful. Characters are complete, very real, and the way the novel is narrated is very dependent on how the story looks and feels from the POV of the character doing the narrating. King really lets the characters tell the story, and in It- which has seen MCs, technically- the characterization is so complete that he could not tell you who was narrating, and you'd know, anyway.
When I'm looking for awesome characterization, I read Stephen King.
----------Liberal Feminist Hippie
26,403 / 50,000
Oct 8, 2008 - 15 16
Does Joyce Carol Oates count as LitFic? If so, it was her. The first thing of hers I read was "We Were the Mulvaneys", which I completely loved.
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2006: Untitled - 14607 words
2007: Cast On: Or, What Men Can Learn from Knitting - 26089 words
2008: Small Towns Burn a Little Slower - 0 words
22,193 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2008 - 00 52
I'd say probably Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. Most of Vonnegut's novels don't rely on plot at all, and this being the first of his work I read, I found it nice compared to a slew of other plot-driven novels I had read before that while in high school. Vonnegut does it well in that he gets you to focus on the characters instead of the plot in the best of his work. Cat's Cradle is also a good example of this, in my opinion.
I'm not sure it if would apply, but Kafka's novels The Castle and The Trial didn't seem very plot driven to me, and since both novels were never finished, it doesn't really leave the reader with any closure.
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2006 - Phase (win~50K)
2007 - Habits (lose~8K)
2008 - Lights and Shadows
5,398 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2008 - 06 41
Honestly, I can't remember. I think what really got me hooked was Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, unless Joyce's A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man counts. I read it in an honors college class and we had a choice of writing a paper about that or a Hemingway novel. Only two people in the class picked Portrait including me. I discovered that a novel didn't have to have solid, linear plot to be enjoyable.
35,662 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2008 - 06 42
I'm a fan of Palahniuk, although I'm not sure if Palahniuk is pop fiction since or lit fiction, but his stories definitely spend a lot of time on character.
0 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2008 - 11 23
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. It's what got me writing for the first NaNo I did.
119,844 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2008 - 12 23
I always disliked literary fiction (well, perhaps 'dislike' is too strong of a word). I found most of it boring, and for that reason I tended to avoid it.
This summer, however, I read The Disappearing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell. And I was blown away. The characterization was amazing, the structure of the novel sucked me in, and the way it was told stayed with me for days after it ended. I wasn't crazy about the ending, so that sort of spoiled the experience for me, but I was still amazed at the tenderness and depth of emotion with which it was written.
In one of my classes, we may be reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, and just from the reviews I know it's something I'll enjoy. I'm really starting to ease my way into the world of lit fic! ^__^
0 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2008 - 17 50
I am not really sure if it counts as Lit Fic, but "A long way down" by Nick Hornby got me interested. The plot is plain and simple but I love how the characters develop and change during the book.
I also love how he manages to wirte in four POVs and every single one has its own style and character...
Yes, it doesn't come as a surprise but I simply love this book, it inspired me to write my own stuff.
6,315 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2008 - 20 55
While not Litfic per se, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman hooked me on the genre. As a ten-year-old, it was a revelation that books didn't just have to be about horses, boyfriends, babysitting, and magic, and that books could be political and philosophical and meaningful - "adult" stuff - without being boring.
----------2005: lose, [i]Key[/i]
2006: win, [i]The Greater Secrets[/i]
2007: lose, [i]Saturn Return[/i]
2008: [i]Snap[/i]. win?
10,150 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2008 - 05 07
For me it was John Updike's Rabbit, Run, and all of its sequels.
----------NaNo '06 - The Center of Gravity. 7 drafts since '06. Revising for editor!
NaNo '07 - Notes From Nowhere (YA novel, 50K)
NaNo '08 - Rob's Day Out! (YA caper)
http://weirdquietgirl.wordpress.com -life, writing, and YA lit
5,398 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2008 - 12 30
Word. I remember loving those books when I was younger because they actually made me think. I still love them.
40,882 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2008 - 12 50
I have long been a fan of Magical Realism, and I think House of Spirits was the first novel I read that sucked me in like that. However, I don't think it really counts as Literary Fiction. To be honest, I don't know if my projected novel counts, either, but it fits here better than any of the other genres.
---------->>>>
Writing: a particularly insidious form of madness. There is no cure.
2008: Ki Raro, Ki Runga (Hands Up, Hands Down)
37,870 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2008 - 01 46
For me, it would have to be The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. I read it late last year, and it's still my favourite novel of all time. My favourite thing about is definitely the personification of Death as the main character, and just some of the beautiful metaphors he uses to tell his story. Plus I'm a sucker for historical fiction, which just added to my love.
It's wonderful. That's the first Picoult book I read after my friend pestered me for months, and now she's one of my favourite authors. Just so you know, it'll break your heart, though. ----------
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. ~Isaac Asimov <3
0 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 09 20
I think this may be more in the category of Magical Realism, but Mikhail Bulgarov's THE MASTER AND MARGARITA. My friend recommended it to me because Pontius Pilate is a character (and I love Pontius Pilate - long story), but the dynamic of the characters despite the world gone mad in which they lived is what really drew me into the plot. To this day I can't find a single novel (or even piece of writing) that I love more.
----------cen (excentryke)
29,067 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 11 45
I picked up Fay by Larry Brown on a whim from a used bookstore about a year ago and it blew me away. There was something so quietly beautiful about it, something tragic and very real. I'm pretty sure it's not the first book in the lit fic field that affected me like that, but it was the first that made me want to try writing some for myself.
12,746 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 12 32
I loved that book so much that I thought I was going to explode!
*edit* Oops! Meant to link to the Kavalier and Clay poster.
----------Kirsty B
12,746 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 12 28
There's no way that Picoult counts as lit fic! I've only read one (I work for her UK publisher), but I'd say she contemporary women's fiction through and through. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and she's supposed to be very compelling, but not lit fic.
----------Kirsty B
29,307 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 13 56
Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis and American Psycho by Ellis as well. He's a fantastic writer and before I read these, mostly I had been reading fantasy/fiction that was truly plot driven. This opened it up so even thought some things I thought were "literary fiction" totally were not.
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NANOVELS
2006 - Whatafter... (won!)
2007- Rapture (won!)
2008- Checkmate (tentative title)
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Scripts of Frenzy
2007- As Ready As I'm Going To Be (won!)
37,870 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 21 53
The way she writes could possibly be lit fic, from a character sense (really, it's her characters that drive her plot, and she really does explore them quite deeply), but I'm not sure if it quite counts from a stylistic sense, really. ----------
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. ~Isaac Asimov <3
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Oct 12, 2008 - 22 59
It definitely doesn't count. Picoult writes Mainstream Fiction (the more I find myself using that term, the more I hate it). That's no commentary on the quality of her work, but it's definitely not Lit. Fic.
Also, to the person above who mentioned Bret Easton Ellis: It's nice to know that I'm not the only one.
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"I kill where I please because it is all mine."
------------------------------------------Ted Hughes
4,740 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2008 - 08 10
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
-----------Con-
14,100 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2008 - 11 54
its not really lit fic, but A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray, also known as the Gemma Doyle Trilogy.
----------the thing about this one: the author uses poetry as an inspiration for each books, and actually uses quotes from the poems as titles. also, really really really great characterization in the 3rd book. SO good. i mean, there was more than one really well developed character. ever heard of felicity worthington or pippa? pippa, pippa, pippa. lol.
http://www.peacelovetwilightblog.blogspot.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/~cedwardpattinsonian
http://edwardrevamped.livejournal.com
20,501 / 50,000
Oct 14, 2008 - 21 27
The Outsider by Albert Camus for me. Sure its filled with lots of existentialism but who can argue with a book who's soul plot revolves around a trial in which a man is tried for murder and convicted on the basis that he did not cry at his mothers funeral.
Thats The Outsider not The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton couldn't write her way out of a paper bag.
0 / 50,000
Oct 15, 2008 - 07 15
Brown Girl Borwn Stones and On Beauty by Zadie Smith