Manny
ANCIENT EVENINGS -- Norman Mailer -- Sprawling ancient Egyptian epic about Time, War, the Spirit, and the Political Aspects of Buggery. Never before has a novel so carefully balanced philosophical nuance with incest and cannibalism.
THE DAY OF CREATION -- J.G. Ballard -- Bizarre thriller concerning Central Africa and a disenchanted doctor's accidental creation of a river, and his subsequent attempts to claim and then destroy that river. Doctor Mallory confronts a sociopathic, fame-obsessed general, a precocious twelve-year-old river guardian, a cabal of indifferent women, a hack documentarian, and a down-river journey that would make Conrad smile and cause Colonel Kurtz to projectile vomit.
LEGION -- William Peter Blatty -- Loose sequel to THE EXORCIST follows Lt. Kinderman as he wrestles with the nature of God while investigating a series of gruesome murders that appear to copy those of a long-dead killer called Gemini; in fact, the murders are far more, and as Kinderman gets closer to the truth, his religious ambivalence only grows.
PET SEMATARY -- Stephen King -- Bleak, nasty King novel about a pet cemetery nestled in the Maine wilderness that serves as the final resting place for a number of unfortunate pets... and the other cemetery, deeper in those woods, that serves a much darker purpose. Sometimes dead is better.
TITUS ANDRONICUS -- William Shakespeare -- Early, gore-soaked Shakespeare play with a wide streak of dark humor. Not as refined as his more famous work (Shakespeare scholars often try to suggest -- to no avail -- that he didn't write it at all), it's certainly a hell of a lot more fun.
VICTORY -- Joseph Conrad -- Rousing swashbuckler about a lonely man named Heyst who runs afoul of a cruel and vicious Swede; upon wooing the object of the Swede's affections and returning with her to his private island, Heyst is set upon by mercenary pirates charged with bringing back his head. Love, adventure, pirates -- a grand sea yarn.
THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY -- Hemingway wrote classic novels, but he was at his absolute best in his short stories. Check out "The Killers," "Big Two-Hearted River" (Parts I and II), and "Soldier's Home" -- read on from there.
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