/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22722710]

Who's the most underrated novelist of the 20th century? I'm going with this kooky nigga.

[Anonymous No.22722870]

Hawkes used to be discussed more on /lit/ years ago but I rarely see him brought up now. Cannibal is incredible for a first novel and is a must-read for fans of transgressive and fucked up novels. I'm currently reading The Passion Artist by him.

[Anonymous No.22722986]

>>22722870
>I'm currently reading The Passion Artist by him.
IMO that's the weakest of the ones I've read (Lime Twig, Beetle Leg, Second Skin, Travesty, TPA, Sweet William, The Frog), but at least one friend of mine adores it, and his language as always is lovely. The prison break scene is very good, and very funny in his sick way. I still haven't gotten to The Cannibal, it's the last of his big ones for me to get to I think.
Why do you think he's flown under the radar? He's a bit hard to recommend to casual readers since he strips away all the obvious pulls like romance, humor, narrative structure etc., but I'd think the power of his prose and weight of the emotion he can carry would get him tons of fans among more serious literature people. He also taught at an Ivy for decades so presumably a lot of people in the industry know of him.

[Anonymous No.22723033]

>>22722710
i've been searching for a copy of the cannibal for years and could never find one, that shit is never in print

[Anonymous No.22723185]

>>22723033
I've never seen it in person, might have to bite the bullet and look online. I was lucky enough to find a Second Skin misprint in a local used book store though- it was bound upside-down, so anyone who saw me reading it would think I was only pretending to read it. Price was reduced for that but I'd have paid extra for such a thing.

[Anonymous No.22723210]

lurking this thread for more authors

[Anonymous No.22723217]

>>22723210
I picked up a Nelson Algren book recently and the old man running the store said he's great. Haven't read it yet but it seems promising, he's another of those 20th century Americans who had a lot going for him but never garnered lasting fame. Can't say yet how similar he is to Hawkes.

[Anonymous No.22723295]

>>22723033
Bought my copy for $9 in May, 2023

[Anonymous No.22723307]

Sens players celebrating like crazy since they haven’t scored in five games

[Anonymous No.22723828]

>>22722986
>IMO that's the weakest of the ones I've read

From reviews and other comments I read online, that seems to be a common feedback to TPA. Without much familiarity with his other works, I'd hazard the guess that it's because TPA is a "character sketch" novel, that is, it's deeply focused on the psychology and interior life of its single main character. There's not a lot of plot or action for such a short book (my edition is about 190 pages) and a lot of time is spent philosophizing and psychologizing.

I've really enjoyed the prose in it, I think Hawkes' voice and style is what attracts him to me the most. But otherwise, the plot and character aren't the most interesting.

If you're still here, do you have one favorite of his novels that you'd pick?

>Why do you think he's flown under the radar?

That's a great question which I wish I had a good answer to. My first impression of him years ago was that he's a "writers' writer", by which I mean he doesn't have much popular appeal or awareness even within the spectrum of more obscure American 20th century literature. You'd probably discovered him via other more well-known writers mentioning him (since it's been like a decade I can't remember where I first heard of him, but it might have been on /lit/). It probably doesn't help that, to my knowledge, he hasn't had a reprint in a very long time, although most of his novels have New Directions editions and that publisher usually is pretty visible.

[Anonymous No.22723832]

>>22723828
Very cool reddit post

[Anonymous No.22723835]

>>22723832
Great contribution to the discussion. I appreciate the valuable feedback.

[Anonymous No.22723896]

>>22723828
>the plot and character aren't the most interesting.
Supposedly he was asked in an interview about his lack of plots and replied "I don't know what a plot is", but idk where the interview can be found, there are a few but a search mostly gets interviews with the much less interesting Hollywood actor of the same name.

>If you're still here, do you have one favorite of his novels that you'd pick?
OP here. Second Skin is my favorite; his prose was at its height in that era, and it's got one of his few likeable protagonists. I love the weirdness and intensity of it; most of his books feel like nightmares, and SS might be the most nightmarish of them all (Lime Twig comes close and I'm fine with it being his most popular, its more conventional and exciting while still spectacular). I've only fallen in love with him over the last year; I read my first of his, The Beetle Leg, in my early 20s and was not ready for it, it mostly just confused and upset me. Found The Frog on a store shelf last October (now almost 30) and picked it up because I like frogs, loved it, and then read SS and realized Hawkes was in fact something special.
There's a huge disconnect between his early and late works and they're hard to compare. Early Hawkes is frantic and violent, late Hawkes much more introspective and subtle. Passion Artist lies in the awkward middle ground.
>You'd probably discovered him via other more well-known writers mentioning him
It cheers me up that even if he's not widely read, he influenced a lot of others who are. In Flannery O'Connor's collected correspondences (worth browsing if you like her, they're full of personality and charm) is at least one letter to Hawkes, gushing over The Lime Twig and praising its originality and depth. I don't know if he wrote back... this would have been years after she wrote Wise Blood so it must be coincidence that in WB she named a character Sabbath Hawkes.

Has anyone read Jeffrey Eugenides? I don't get the sense he's anywhere near Hawkes's level but he did have him as a prof for his Brown days, and has cited him as an influence.

[Anonymous No.22723907]

>>22722710
Lucien Rebatet, I heard some people say.

[Anonymous No.22723941]

>>22723896
>Supposedly
>but idk where the interview can be found
Great contribution, retard

[Anonymous No.22723952]

>>22723941
>complains about worthless post
>makes even more worthless post
think before you speak

[Anonymous No.22723959]

>>22723952
Maybe stop bloviating and actually say something of substance instead of glorified gossip and biographical details like women are wont to do

[Anonymous No.22723966]

>>22723959
not that anon i just don't give a shit about catering to your bad mood. you burn your tendies today or something?

[Anonymous No.22723977]

>>22723966
Cool shoop, newfag
>posting a screenshot
Lmaooooooo

[Anonymous No.22723979]

>>22723977
yeah i'm gonna whip up a pixel-perfect photoshop in a minute and half. What—did you get your ass handed to you in another thread? If you're so mad turn off your computer you terminally online faggot and spare us all your temper tantrum

[Anonymous No.22723990]

Not a novelist but i never get tired of recommending kolyma stories by varlam shalamov. soviets never dissapoint. beautiful brutal depictions of what happened at the siberian gulags during stalinist russia

[Anonymous No.22723998]

>>22723979
Hello, newfren. You should go back, especially if you are just going to gossip like a woman

[Anonymous No.22724043]

>>22723998
7 minutes for that. pathetic

[Anonymous No.22724126]

>>22723941
I mentioned it because it's an amusing and relevant anecdote. Does it even matter if it happened, let alone can be easily linked?
What are you doing here?

>>22723990
Never heard of this guy; that's what I was hoping for. Anyone you'd compare him to? Weird how few Soviet writers caught on at all in the West, or at least here in the US. Slavs in general are really hit or miss for me but I'll keep an eye out for this guy.

[Anonymous No.22724237]

>>22722710
>Who's the most underrated novelist of the 20th century?
Leon Forrest or Albert Murray or Percival Everett for my money