I'm glad you liked my review. Most of the time I focus on re-readings, but of course I wasn't able to do that this time, so you're getting my first impressions. Maybe I'll do a proper re-read/re-review when the Belt edition comes out.
That's a great list of city novels. May I suggest a couple of modifications. First, add Andrei Bely's "Petersburg," which makes the city the main character in a way I haven't quite seen elsewhere, and which Nabokov considered one of the 4 greatest prose works of the 20th century. Second, for Dreiser I would swap "Sister Carrie" for "Jennie Gerhardt." It's mostly a tale of two cities (Cleveland and Chicago). It's also in my view better written than "Sister Carrie" and more focused as a story, as well as being Mencken's second favorite American novel (after "Huckleberry Finn").
Thank you! Yes, I definitely need to read both Petersburg and Jennie Gerhardt. (I'm not sure I've ever read a novel set in Cleveland, though it's not far from where I'm from.)
BTW, I just thought of another one for the list, even though it's not really a novel (strictly speaking) and it's not about any particular city: Calvino's "Invisible Cities." I wrote a post on my old blog comparing it to "City of Dreadful Night" (which you mentioned), as part of an artistic "compare and contrast" series I used to do there. You can find it here: https://swspires.weebly.com/blog/correspondences7059243
I can only read on kindle--aging eyes and hands. When you "pull" from Amazon, will that pull the kindle book? Pull it in what sense? No longer able to buy it? Or have the book we bought disappear on us. Right now it is on Kindle Unlimited and I have it downloaded. If THAT goes away but buying it will keep it on my kindle, I'll fork over the funds.
So on July 1, the book will no longer be for sale either in print or Kindle editions. I believe the Kindle version will remain on your device as long as you've downloaded it. (I found a few threads on this topic on the Kindle sub-Reddit and they all said that downloaded books remain on your device even if the book is no longer for sale.) Thanks for your interest!
I'm glad you liked my review. Most of the time I focus on re-readings, but of course I wasn't able to do that this time, so you're getting my first impressions. Maybe I'll do a proper re-read/re-review when the Belt edition comes out.
That's a great list of city novels. May I suggest a couple of modifications. First, add Andrei Bely's "Petersburg," which makes the city the main character in a way I haven't quite seen elsewhere, and which Nabokov considered one of the 4 greatest prose works of the 20th century. Second, for Dreiser I would swap "Sister Carrie" for "Jennie Gerhardt." It's mostly a tale of two cities (Cleveland and Chicago). It's also in my view better written than "Sister Carrie" and more focused as a story, as well as being Mencken's second favorite American novel (after "Huckleberry Finn").
Thank you! Yes, I definitely need to read both Petersburg and Jennie Gerhardt. (I'm not sure I've ever read a novel set in Cleveland, though it's not far from where I'm from.)
BTW, I just thought of another one for the list, even though it's not really a novel (strictly speaking) and it's not about any particular city: Calvino's "Invisible Cities." I wrote a post on my old blog comparing it to "City of Dreadful Night" (which you mentioned), as part of an artistic "compare and contrast" series I used to do there. You can find it here: https://swspires.weebly.com/blog/correspondences7059243
Thanks! Yes, I actually thought of adding Invisible Cities, but it seemed less like an item on the list than a metatext standing above the list.
When written, your review of the great novel of Pittsburgh should be titled: "Trope from tropos, diamonds from coal."
Excellent, thank you!
I can only read on kindle--aging eyes and hands. When you "pull" from Amazon, will that pull the kindle book? Pull it in what sense? No longer able to buy it? Or have the book we bought disappear on us. Right now it is on Kindle Unlimited and I have it downloaded. If THAT goes away but buying it will keep it on my kindle, I'll fork over the funds.
So on July 1, the book will no longer be for sale either in print or Kindle editions. I believe the Kindle version will remain on your device as long as you've downloaded it. (I found a few threads on this topic on the Kindle sub-Reddit and they all said that downloaded books remain on your device even if the book is no longer for sale.) Thanks for your interest!