The Adventures of Augie March (Penguin Classics)58 reviews Saul Bellow Penguin Classics, 2006 Excellent writing + This is Not Carl Sandburg's Chicago + Growing up in the depression + Inchoate Bellow tries to flex his genius (with mixed results)             The Executioner's Song77 reviews Norman Mailer Vintage, 1998 A Brilliant, Colossal Project That is Worth Every Page + "It's not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions" - Mailer + The Executioner's Song Norman Mailer's book "The Executioner's Song" made me a fan of journalistic fiction. He was capable of using elements from a journalist's world while incorporating the necessary elements to turn this epic project into a beautiful, insightful novel. This combination he used to perfection as he was ...             Herzog (Penguin Classics)65 reviews Saul Bellow Penguin Classics, 2003 Great book for the tragically self-aware + A Book of Introspection + A brilliant, gripping study of value, intellect and breakdown + Herzog The Pain King.             Wise Blood: A Novel49 reviews Flannery O'Connor Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 "Stop one minute to listen to the truth because you may never hear it again." + Current Favourite Novel + Anyone Who Had a Heart + Grotesque Comedy             Collected Poems 1930-1986 Richard Eberhart Oxford University Press, USA, 1988 Winner of the Bollingen Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award, Richard Eberhart is one of America's most respected and acclaimed poets. Collected Poems, 1930-1986 offers a wide selection of poems from a career that has spanned over half a century, incorporating the earlier Collected Poems, 1930-1976, plus over fifty additional poems written in the last ten years. Eberhart's ...             The Glass Menagerie126 reviews Tennessee Williams New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1999 Superb, Heartfelt Classic + A Thoroughly Enjoyed Classic + Illusion and Escape + Glass Menagerie             Lolita449 reviews Vladimir Nabokov Vintage, 1989 A road movie of the mind + Beautiful writing confronts crude subject matter--A masterpiece + Upends your preconceptions and prejudices + Which book did you read? + The Most Beautiful Novel Ever Written             Ancient Evenings Norman Mailer Macmillan, 1983             Nine Stories158 reviews J.D. Salinger Back Bay Books, 2001 Salinger Hits Nine Home Runs. + Salinger's Little Worlds + Nine Stories More Than Just Bananafish Published after The Catcher in the Rye (1951), Nine Stories is quintessential Salinger. Having first read Salinger's collection of Nine Stories as a college student, these short stories have remained in my thoughts for years. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (first published in the The New ...             New and Collected Poems (Harvest Book)8 reviews Richard Wilbur Harvest Books, 1989 A GRANDMASTER'S LIFE OEUVRE + Richard Wilbur is a master + Beauty & Wit + A dynamite collection from a formalist master + the man is really good             The Cannibal5 reviews John Hawkes New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1962 Underestimated Genius + Like Di Lillo, Pynchon, Auster, Hannah, Boyle, Coover--One of the Greatest John Hawkes is a master of allusion and sordid subtleties. In *The Cannibal*, Hawkes' apocalyptic vision of post-war Germany attacks the reader in the form of an ever-deepening chill. Readers of Gunter Grass's *The Tin Drum* will find an interesting parallel here in Hawkes' sterile world. This ...             The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories31 reviews Carson McCullers Mariner Books, 2005 Carson's Ballad is Beautiful + Essential Americana + sure, McCullers' concerns are weighty and everything... + A HAUNTING STORY             Invisible Man278 reviews Ralph Ellison Vintage, 1995 The invisibility of man + A classic.. + Completely Unique + Underappreciated work of genius             Seize the Day (Penguin Classics)66 reviews Saul Bellow Penguin Classics, 2003 'Time is envious and is running away from us. Seize the day.' + The loser in all of us... + A Short, Wonderous, Uncomfortable Book + GREAT MOVIE MISERABLE TRANSFER TO DVD + More Brilliance from a Brilliant Author             The Stories of John Cheever2 reviews Alfred A Knopf, 1978 A Great Anthology of a Great Writer! + A master of the short story if you are a short story reader or a John Cheever's fan, you will be pleased with this book which includes 61 stories spanning from 1947 to 1978. Here are the following titles: Goodbye, My Brother The Common Day The Enormous Radio O City of Broken Dreams The Hartleys The Sutton Place Story ...             "Harlem Gallery" and Other Poems of Melvin B. Tolson3 reviews Melvin Beaunorus Tolson University Press of Virginia, 1999 A superb anthology of an outstanding Black poet. + Harlem Gallery and Other Poems + The Melvin B. Tolosian Review Raymond Nelson edits Harlem Gallery And Other Poems Of Melvin B. Tolson (1865-0), which presents works from one of the most recognized black voices in American poetry. His poems are here organized by topic and include notes for further study.             The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-19856 reviews James Baldwin St. Martin's Press, 1985 Best American essayist + The 3rd Eye of James Baldwin + If They Take You In the Morning + Baldwin's Legacy + Incredibly heartfelt essays             Collected Poems7 reviews James Schuyler Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995 Wreckage and Romanticism + Just wait + ONE OF THE BEST EVER + A great poet + Almost Perfect!             The Violent Bear It Away: A Novel24 reviews Flannery O'Connor Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 Haunting, beautiful, astonishing + Wow. Incredibly Thought Provoking + Astounding work from a master + Good story + "...where the children of God lay sleeping."             The Stories of Bernard Malamud Bernard Malamud Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989