And why shouldn’t Walker Percy write a Roman Catholic
science-fiction comic existential romance novel?
Rarely do I read a book, and proclaim: "Well, no one ever
did that before.” Usually when I do,
the next thought that comes into my
head is: “Let’s hope no one does it
again.” Or, as my wife likes to tell our
sons: "Just because you can, doesn't
mean that you should.”
With Love in the Ruins (1971), Percy can
and does and should. Ingredients never
previously mixed, rub shoulders under the
soft covers of my paperback copy. Yet he
pulls off this momentous mash-up with
moxie. He leaves me wanting more of the
same. Clearly he felt the same way: His
final book, The Thanatos Syndrome
(1987) was a sequel to Love in the Ruins,
and proved that epistemology and zombies
are not incompatible.
Percy, best known for his 1961 National
Book Award-winning novel The Moviegoer,
specialized in angst-ridden protagonists,
paralyzed by self-doubt and on the brink of
mental illness. His unheroic hero in Love in the Ruins, is another
of these soul-haunted men, a psychiatrist appropriately named
Thomas More. Our good doctor was named after his ancestor,
the same More who wrote Utopia and was beheaded by King
Henry VIII. Our modern-day More has much in common with his
famous predecessor: he is a troubled Catholic, losing his head
(albeit metaphorically rather than literally) in the face of social and
political conflict, and seeking for earthly salvation via a radical
personal vision of utopian life.
Dr. More is a dreamer. But he also much more than a dreamer….
because he has invented the More Qualitative-Quantitative
Ontological Lapsometer. This is a handy piece of equipment that
diagnoses existential angst, and supplies a proper jolt to treat it.
Think of it as a kind of defibrillator for the soul. And just imagine
the therapeutic value of rebalancing the inner self with outer self?
More is convinced that a Nobel Prize is in his future.
In the meantime, he needs to worry about the mysterious stranger
who is trying to shoot him. And the colleague who wants to humiliate
him. And several ladies who also have plans for his future, apparently
subscribing to the old adage that ‘More is better’.
He should be dealing with these problems, and assorted other crises
in his neighborhood, but instead he frets about the consequences of
his discovery. More offers up his own homemade prayer in hopes
of averting them: "Lord, grant that my work increase knowledge and
help other men. Failing that, Lord, grant that it will not lead to man's
destruction. Failing that, Lord, grant that my article in Brain be
published before the destruction takes place." This, Percy explains,
is "the prayer of the scientist if he prayed, which is not likely."
Dr. More is having trouble explaining his breakthrough to others.
Even his neighbors in Paradise, Louisiana think he is a bit crazy,
and although they still turn to him for medical advice and treatment,
more than few of them believe the physician ought to heal himself.
More makes matters worse by describing his scientific breakthrough
in spiritual terms. As he sees it, his Lapsometer diagnoses two great
evils in modern society—namely angelism and bestialism, marked
by too great spiritual abstraction, on the one hand, and abandonment
to animal-like impulses on the other. Even skeptics gradually come
to accept that More can change people's psyches with his strange
device, but his rambling talk about the human soul gives them the
heebie-jeebies.
This strange sci-fi plot would, in itself, be sufficient to propel a
fascinating novel. But Percy wants to do so much more. He
gives his troubled doctor three major love interests, and our
befuddled protagonist tries to pursue all of them, even as he
deals with the emotional fallout from his failed first marriage.
On top of this, Percy constructs a wild political satire, involving
terrorist cells and plans for revolution in Paradise. A whole
host of movements, counter-movements and splinter cells interact
during the course of these pages, and perspicacious readers may
want to jot down marginalia so that they can keep track of the
competing agendas of the Knotheads, Bantus, Leftpapas,
Christian proctologists, Teutonic sexologists, love people, the
American Catholic Church of Cicero, Illinois, Qualitarians, and
other factions whose disputes and dogmas repeatedly move the
story in unexpected directions.
Indeed, Percy may be best known as a religious writer, given the
themes of his books, but nothing is sacred in his stories. All the
most controversial issues—race, religion, sex, party politics,
Yankee imperialism, class warfare, guns and ammo—play a
prominent role in Love in the Ruins. No matter what your belief
system and background, you will find something offensive
somewhere in these pages.
A typical conversation from its pages
"Chief, the news is worse…."
"What has happened now?"
"There are riots in New Orleans, and riots over here. The
students are fighting the National Guard, the Lefts are fighting
the Knotheads, the blacks are fighting the whites. The Jews are
being persecuted."
"What are the Christians doing?"
"Nothing."
"Turn on the TV."
"It’s on. The station went off the air."
But you have to admire Walker Percy's daring. Plenty of writers
were concocting apocalyptic sci-fi novels during this period, and
more than a few extracted political insights from these action-
oriented stories. But Percy's attempt to construct a science fiction
of the soul is even more ambitious. Love in the Ruins is one of the
few futuristic tales suitable for scrutiny and assessment by
theologians and moral philosophers. In the annals of science fiction,
only a handful of novels (such as James Blish's A Case of
Conscience, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, or—
now don't freak out!—Frank Herbert's Dune) have dug so deeply into
the inner workings of our ethical constructs.
Percy has many interesting things to say in the course of this book,
and almost every page contains something quotable or notable. But
readers who prefer tight narratives and neat, clean plots will rebel
against the rambling and ruminative delivery. The end result is less
like a novel, and more like a lovable but opinionated great uncle at
the dinner table spinning an endless yarn, filled with sidetracks,
digressions and rude observations. Even if you disagree, you will
be entertained, and find yourself recalling snatches of the monologue
days or weeks later.
Percy was that kind of writer and—God bless him!—one of the best
of them. If I tried to sum up his work in a pithy phrase, I would turn
to an old song very popular in the same Louisiana in which Love in
the Ruins is set. Its title, "Oh, Didn’t He Ramble" fits Percy perfectly.
I’m told the original version of this song was so outrageous as to
be unpublishable, but once cleaned up it became suitable for both
parties and funerals. Percy's book captures a bit of all these traits
—it's outrageous, jubilant and elegiac all at the same time. Maybe
that's a contradiction, but then again, maybe tha's just the right recipe
for existential Roman Catholic sci-fi comic romance fiction.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. His next book, a
history of love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication date: September 18, 2014
science-fiction comic existential romance novel?
Rarely do I read a book, and proclaim: "Well, no one ever
did that before.” Usually when I do,
the next thought that comes into my
head is: “Let’s hope no one does it
again.” Or, as my wife likes to tell our
sons: "Just because you can, doesn't
mean that you should.”
With Love in the Ruins (1971), Percy can
and does and should. Ingredients never
previously mixed, rub shoulders under the
soft covers of my paperback copy. Yet he
pulls off this momentous mash-up with
moxie. He leaves me wanting more of the
same. Clearly he felt the same way: His
final book, The Thanatos Syndrome
(1987) was a sequel to Love in the Ruins,
and proved that epistemology and zombies
are not incompatible.
Percy, best known for his 1961 National
Book Award-winning novel The Moviegoer,
specialized in angst-ridden protagonists,
paralyzed by self-doubt and on the brink of
mental illness. His unheroic hero in Love in the Ruins, is another
of these soul-haunted men, a psychiatrist appropriately named
Thomas More. Our good doctor was named after his ancestor,
the same More who wrote Utopia and was beheaded by King
Henry VIII. Our modern-day More has much in common with his
famous predecessor: he is a troubled Catholic, losing his head
(albeit metaphorically rather than literally) in the face of social and
political conflict, and seeking for earthly salvation via a radical
personal vision of utopian life.
Dr. More is a dreamer. But he also much more than a dreamer….
because he has invented the More Qualitative-Quantitative
Ontological Lapsometer. This is a handy piece of equipment that
diagnoses existential angst, and supplies a proper jolt to treat it.
Think of it as a kind of defibrillator for the soul. And just imagine
the therapeutic value of rebalancing the inner self with outer self?
More is convinced that a Nobel Prize is in his future.
In the meantime, he needs to worry about the mysterious stranger
who is trying to shoot him. And the colleague who wants to humiliate
him. And several ladies who also have plans for his future, apparently
subscribing to the old adage that ‘More is better’.
He should be dealing with these problems, and assorted other crises
in his neighborhood, but instead he frets about the consequences of
his discovery. More offers up his own homemade prayer in hopes
of averting them: "Lord, grant that my work increase knowledge and
help other men. Failing that, Lord, grant that it will not lead to man's
destruction. Failing that, Lord, grant that my article in Brain be
published before the destruction takes place." This, Percy explains,
is "the prayer of the scientist if he prayed, which is not likely."
Dr. More is having trouble explaining his breakthrough to others.
Even his neighbors in Paradise, Louisiana think he is a bit crazy,
and although they still turn to him for medical advice and treatment,
more than few of them believe the physician ought to heal himself.
More makes matters worse by describing his scientific breakthrough
in spiritual terms. As he sees it, his Lapsometer diagnoses two great
evils in modern society—namely angelism and bestialism, marked
by too great spiritual abstraction, on the one hand, and abandonment
to animal-like impulses on the other. Even skeptics gradually come
to accept that More can change people's psyches with his strange
device, but his rambling talk about the human soul gives them the
heebie-jeebies.
This strange sci-fi plot would, in itself, be sufficient to propel a
fascinating novel. But Percy wants to do so much more. He
gives his troubled doctor three major love interests, and our
befuddled protagonist tries to pursue all of them, even as he
deals with the emotional fallout from his failed first marriage.
On top of this, Percy constructs a wild political satire, involving
terrorist cells and plans for revolution in Paradise. A whole
host of movements, counter-movements and splinter cells interact
during the course of these pages, and perspicacious readers may
want to jot down marginalia so that they can keep track of the
competing agendas of the Knotheads, Bantus, Leftpapas,
Christian proctologists, Teutonic sexologists, love people, the
American Catholic Church of Cicero, Illinois, Qualitarians, and
other factions whose disputes and dogmas repeatedly move the
story in unexpected directions.
Indeed, Percy may be best known as a religious writer, given the
themes of his books, but nothing is sacred in his stories. All the
most controversial issues—race, religion, sex, party politics,
Yankee imperialism, class warfare, guns and ammo—play a
prominent role in Love in the Ruins. No matter what your belief
system and background, you will find something offensive
somewhere in these pages.
A typical conversation from its pages
"Chief, the news is worse…."
"What has happened now?"
"There are riots in New Orleans, and riots over here. The
students are fighting the National Guard, the Lefts are fighting
the Knotheads, the blacks are fighting the whites. The Jews are
being persecuted."
"What are the Christians doing?"
"Nothing."
"Turn on the TV."
"It’s on. The station went off the air."
But you have to admire Walker Percy's daring. Plenty of writers
were concocting apocalyptic sci-fi novels during this period, and
more than a few extracted political insights from these action-
oriented stories. But Percy's attempt to construct a science fiction
of the soul is even more ambitious. Love in the Ruins is one of the
few futuristic tales suitable for scrutiny and assessment by
theologians and moral philosophers. In the annals of science fiction,
only a handful of novels (such as James Blish's A Case of
Conscience, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, or—
now don't freak out!—Frank Herbert's Dune) have dug so deeply into
the inner workings of our ethical constructs.
Percy has many interesting things to say in the course of this book,
and almost every page contains something quotable or notable. But
readers who prefer tight narratives and neat, clean plots will rebel
against the rambling and ruminative delivery. The end result is less
like a novel, and more like a lovable but opinionated great uncle at
the dinner table spinning an endless yarn, filled with sidetracks,
digressions and rude observations. Even if you disagree, you will
be entertained, and find yourself recalling snatches of the monologue
days or weeks later.
Percy was that kind of writer and—God bless him!—one of the best
of them. If I tried to sum up his work in a pithy phrase, I would turn
to an old song very popular in the same Louisiana in which Love in
the Ruins is set. Its title, "Oh, Didn’t He Ramble" fits Percy perfectly.
I’m told the original version of this song was so outrageous as to
be unpublishable, but once cleaned up it became suitable for both
parties and funerals. Percy's book captures a bit of all these traits
—it's outrageous, jubilant and elegiac all at the same time. Maybe
that's a contradiction, but then again, maybe tha's just the right recipe
for existential Roman Catholic sci-fi comic romance fiction.
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. His next book, a
history of love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication date: September 18, 2014
Love in the Ruins
by Walker Percy
Essay by Ted Gioia
by Walker Percy
Essay by Ted Gioia
| To purchase, click on image |
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials from
publishers, authors, publicists or other
parties.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
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Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
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Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
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