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I've been wanting to make this thread for years, but I thought it might overlap too much with other threads. Then, I couldn't decide if it belonged in here or in PYF. I finally decided to just go ahead and start the thread before I die of old age. I want to hear about books or stories by well-known authors that fall completely outside of the genre or genres that author is associated with. The more obscure and forgotten the work is, the better. The farther from the author's best-known topics, the better. Books and stories that are forgotten because they suck fit the topic, but I'd really like to hear about authors who wandered off the reservation and did it well. Robert Ludlum Ludlum is an author famous for spy thrillers and action novels, such as The Bourne Identity (and the other Bourne novels), The Matarese Circle, The Prometheus Deceoption, The Osterman Weekend, and many more. Some people think his works are pulp garbage, but I don't care. I like the stories. Although the details vary, Ludlum's novels generally followed a fairly tight set of conventions: a single good guy, or a small group of good guys fighting an uphill battle against large, shadowy, and relentless antagonistic forces. There were usually lots of beatings, lots of guns, and lots of plot twists. The books were always serious and intense. In a career spanning thirty years and almost thirty books, Ludlum only broke out of his normal universe twice. Once, in 1975, with The Road to Gandolfo, and again in 1992 with The Road to Omaha. The plots are ridiculous, the characters are absurd, and the novels are hilarious. The cast of characters includes General MacKenzie "Madman Mac the Hawk" Hawkins, a WWII hero, military legend, and two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor, who was kicked out of the army following an embarrassing incident with a statue in China. Not one to take wrongful termination laying down, Hawkins hatches insane revenge schemes that form the basis of the novels. Hawkins is an extreme badass who takes no poo poo. He is also absolutely loving insane. Sam Devereaux is an Army lawyer who gets wrapped up in MacKenzie's plans after making a tiny boo-boo in the form of prosecuting and ending the career of General Ethelred Bokemichael. Unfortunately, it was Ethelred's cousin, General Heseltine Brokemichael, that was actually running drugs using the United States Army infrastructure. A minor point, but one that does not endear Sam to Ethelred. By the end of the first novel, Sam is a neurotic wreck due to his dealings with General Hawkins. Heseltine and Ethelred Brokemichael are two Army generals with a slight wedge between them. One of them is a sneaky criminal, while the other one is an honest man who took the fall for the the criminal's bad behavior. Heseltine is convinced Ethelred put the finger on him. The supporting characters differ between the novels, but notable are Sunrise Jennifer Redwing, a fantastically beautiful and brilliant lawyer, a native daughter of the Wopotami tribe, and reluctant convert to the Hawk's scheme in The Road to Omaha, and Desi Arnaz I and II, a couple of Cuban criminals that the Hawk field-enlists for their unique skillsets. In The Road to Gandolfo, Hawkins engineers a kidnapping of the Pope, who he replaces with the Pope's not-very-bright lookalike cousin, a third-rate opera singer who has no interest in leading half a billion Catholics to Heaven. MacKenzie only wants $400 million in ransom, a reasonable sum for a Pope, but the Pope is enjoying his time off and is not in a hurry to put on his hat and go back to work. The Road to Omaha involves MacKenzie Hawkins uncovering a treaty between the U.S. government and the Wopotami tribe, giving the tribe rights to the land in and around Omaha, Nebraska. Should this come to light, it would be a slight problem for the government, as the land in question encompasses Strategic Air Command, which was a tiny bit important at the time the novel was written. Although revenge is the Hawk's primary goal, he doesn't mind helping out a downtrodden tribe of Native Americans in the process. Although the Road books share some superficial themes with Ludlum's other works (evilish government, espionage), they are really nothing like the rest of his oeuvre. They are actually my favorite Ludlum books, and I was very sad when he died leaving behind only two thriller-farces. I am shocked there hasn't been a major Hollywood adaptation of either novel. Ian Fleming Ian Fleming invented James Bond, and wrote such novels as Octopussy, and From Russia With Love. I don't think I need to explain who James Bond is, or what the themes of those books were. It's just coincidence that Fleming also wrote spy thrillers. I am not particularly heavy into the genre, it just happens to have produced two of my favorite genre-breaks. Ian Fleming also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Yes, the one with the sentient flying car. Although most people are probably familiar with the screen version (written by Roald Dahl, by the way, although revamped and finished by someone else), it was a children's book before it was a movie. One thing I like about the book is that Fleming maintained his use of "Bond names" with characters like Caractacus Pott, a whacky inventor, and Lord Skrumshus, owner of a candy factory. Unlike the Ludlum books I mentioned, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang went on to be a classic, but it's still weird to think that womanizing psychopath James Bond and bumbling magic-maker Caractacus Pott came from the same author.
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Aug 23, 2014 15:20
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To continue with the spy author theme, John LeCarre wrote a book called The Naive and Sentimental Lover which I believe is about someone having some kind of affair and also the general awfulness of the British upper classes. I haven't read it but it looks tedious. Also Len Deighton is primarily known for his spy novels like Berlin Game and The IPCRESS File, but he has also written several cookbooks. And there is a lot of discussion of food and cooking in his spy novels as well. quote:written by Roald Dahl, by the way, Another spy!
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Aug 23, 2014 18:12
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Earwicker posted:Also Len Deighton is primarily known for his spy novels like Berlin Game and The IPCRESS File, but he has also written several cookbooks. And there is a lot of discussion of food and cooking in his spy novels as well. OK, this is cool, and the sort of thing I was hoping to see. I have read the entire Game, Set, and Match series, and now that you mention it, I do recall some focus on food in Berlin Game.
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Aug 23, 2014 19:02
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Centripetal Horse posted:OK, this is cool, and the sort of thing I was hoping to see. I have read the entire Game, Set, and Match series, and now that you mention it, I do recall some focus on food in Berlin Game. There was quite a lot in Mexico Set as well, when I was reading it I even suspected he only set that book in Mexico in order to have reasons to describe various Mexican meals and he would even work that into characterizations in some cases such as Dicky Cruyer being unable to deal with the spices
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Aug 23, 2014 19:08
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The porn written by Roald Dahl comes to mind. It's really interesting because it's written in the same, somewhat whimsical, style as everything else he's written. Maybe it's not so much "off-genre" though since he's supposedly had more stories published in Playboy than anywhere else but it's certainly not what he's remembered for.
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Aug 24, 2014 06:55
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Earwicker posted:There was quite a lot in Mexico Set as well, when I was reading it I even suspected he only set that book in Mexico in order to have reasons to describe various Mexican meals and he would even work that into characterizations in some cases such as Dicky Cruyer being unable to deal with the spices My memory of Berlin Game is strongest, because I've read it three or four times. metricchip posted:The porn written by Roald Dahl comes to mind. It's really interesting because it's written in the same, somewhat whimsical, style as everything else he's written. Maybe it's not so much "off-genre" though since he's supposedly had more stories published in Playboy than anywhere else but it's certainly not what he's remembered for. This counts. Adult fiction dealing with sexual themes is probably not what most people think of when they think of Roald Dahl. Do you have any titles? I know of My Uncle Oswald, and some short stories starring the titular character from My Uncle Oswald. I just thought of another example of off-genre works by an author. I had intended this thread to be all about books and short stories (Book Barn and all), but I think this fits. Shel Silverstein, author of some of the most beloved children's books of all time, wrote the song A Boy Named Sue. Yes, the man that gave us The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends, is also responsible for one of Johnny Cash's most well-known and enduring hits. As if that weren't nuts enough, Silverstein also wrote many of the songs associated with Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, including The Cover of the Rolling Stone, which actually got Dr. Hook on the cover of Rolling Stone, albeit in caricature form. Oh, Shel Silverstein also wrote a sequel to A Boy Named Sue, where we find out dad was full of poo poo in the original, and later turned his son into his own personal sodomy slave. How ya like that light in your attic? Edit: Perhaps less surprising, Silverstein is also responsible for The Unicorn, which the Irish Rovers made into a hit in the late 1960s. Edit the II: I just checked, and The Unicorn does appear in Where the Sidewalk Ends, so I guess that makes it not a surprise. Centripetal Horse fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Aug 24, 2014 |
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Aug 24, 2014 08:02
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Arthur Conan Doyle You’ve probably heard that Arthur Conan Doyle didn’t like Sherlock Holmes. To him, detective stories were something that he wrote for the money, and the books he liked the most, and the books he thought would last, were his historical novels. And while those books aren’t remembered, I’d argue that they were influential. Doyle was a fantastic action writer, and his passages describing historical battles combine real brutality and boy’s own thrills in a way that will be familiar to anyone who has ever picked up a Forester or Cornwell or any of their imitators. Sir Arthur’s pick of the bunch are his two novels set during the Hundred Years’ War, The White Company and Sir Nigel. They’re an attempt to reconcile the ideals of chivalry with the reality of the middle ages. This lends the books an odd tone. Doyle never works out what’s he’s trying to say about the period in which the stories are set. One moment chivalry is this totally awesome thing that you should 110% buy into, the next it’s a dangerous delusion that gets people needlessly killed and makes life hell for the common folk. That said, the books are fun. If you’re only familiar with the Three Musketeers through the movie versions, they’re like what you’d imagine that novel to be like, especially Company. (I can’t be the only one who was disappointed with how bloated, talky and soap opera-ey Dumas’s book actually is.) However, I think his best works in the genre are his Brigadier Gerard short stories. Gerard was the character Doyle invented to replace Holmes after he killed him off. If you’ll permit me throw some anachronisms around, the elevator pitch is that it’s Flashman but in the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard as a character is the inverse of Flashy, he’s more the lord Flashheart type. (And he's also French; how many heroes of Napoleonic-era adventure stories are French? I can't think of any). The similarity between Doyle’s and George MacDonald Fraser’s stories is in the way they blend drama, farce and high adventure. There are two collections (Adventures is the best one). Doyle’s best novel length Historical story is Rodney Stone which is set in the Regency era. This one has something for everyone. There’s a mystery subplot about a haunted house for Holmes’ fans. There a subplot about the British navy and a Lord Nelson cameo for people who are into that sort of thing. There’s some Wodehouse-esque spoofery of the upper-class-toffs of the time. The meat of the plot is about the boxing scene which provides plenty of exciting punch ups. Also, the Captain of the Polestar is a drat fine ghost story. Check that out too. metricchip posted:The porn written by Roald Dahl comes to mind. It's really interesting because it's written in the same, somewhat whimsical, style as everything else he's written. Maybe it's not so much "off-genre" though since he's supposedly had more stories published in Playboy than anywhere else but it's certainly not what he's remembered for. I'm reading the first volume of his short fiction at the moment. I know Dahl wrote risqué and morbid stories for adults, so no shocks there. But the Hemmingway aping war stories he started his career with surprised me. High Warlord Zog fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Aug 24, 2014 |
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Aug 24, 2014 08:09
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James Clavelle, who wrote historical fiction such as Shogun and Taipan, also wrote a one off fantasy book called Thrump-o-moto. It sounds very weird.Publisher's Weekly posted:An Australian girl, Patricia, who was sick when she was a child and can't walk, meets Thrump-O-moto, a wizard-in-training from Japan. He takes her with him to his mother, Ka-chan. Patricia starts to use a walking stick instead of her crutches. They visit Grandfather Ten, who suggests that the way to cure Patricia permanently is for her to have Essence of Sunset Primroses, only available in England. Thrump-O-moto and Patricia there meet a leprechaun-like wizard who helps them, but they also battle Muldoona, Hag Queen of the Forest, and prevail. Patricia returns to Australia; because of the special timespan of the wizards' world, she's back by tea-time. Her father thinks she's been dreaming, until she gets up and walks. This is a well-intentioned but disappointing tale from the master storyteller. It's overlong and lacking in originality. Characters speak stiffly, forget spells when they need them and then conveniently remember them moments later. While readers may enjoy the elaborate pictures, filled with exotic details, the spreads are occasionally out-of-sync with the facts in the story.
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Aug 24, 2014 19:28
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High Warlord Zog posted:Arthur Conan Doyle Thanks for the detailed post. Sherlock casts a long shadow. I think most people know that Doyle wrote things besides the Sherlock stories, but I bet most people couldn't name many of those stories. Flashheart dies a couple of months ago  BananaNutkins posted:James Clavelle, who wrote historical fiction such as Shogun and Taipan, also wrote a one off fantasy book called Thrump-o-moto. It sounds very weird. I don't think I've heard of Thrump-o-Moto. That review is not encouraging, buy I sort of want to read the book, anyway. Shogun rules, and I've read it at least three of four times. Tai-Pan, I've read about the same number of times as Shogun. King Rat owned, and I liked Whirlwind. How bad could it be? Pretty bad, I guess, but I am still curious.
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Aug 24, 2014 21:45
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Literary genius Martin Amis (as in "Time's Arrow Martin Amis") wrote a totally sweet guide to nailing high rear end scores in video games. The interior features a photo of Steven Spielberg looking like Leisure Suit Larry as he leans suggestively against a cabinet. timeandtide fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Aug 24, 2014 |
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Aug 24, 2014 23:33
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John D. McDonald is best known for writing the Travis McGee pulp detective novels, but before he wrote those he wrote two sci-fi books, Ballroom of the Skies and Wine of the Dreamers. They're not bad books. Stephen King wrote a fantasy novel that's pretty good, The Eyes of the Dragon.
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Aug 25, 2014 15:29
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timeandtide posted:Literary genius Martin Amis (as in "Time's Arrow Martin Amis") wrote a totally sweet guide to nailing high rear end scores in video games. That's pretty funny. I love the Spielberg photo. Hieronymous Alloy posted:John D. McDonald is best known for writing the Travis McGee pulp detective novels, but before he wrote those he wrote two sci-fi books, Ballroom of the Skies and Wine of the Dreamers. They're not bad books. This reminds me of the now-fairly-well-known fact that Johnny Cash wrote a science fiction story called The Holografik Danser. He wrote the story in the 1950s, but it wasn't published until the 2000s, in a collection titled Songs Without Rhyme.
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Aug 26, 2014 05:44
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Does Roger Ebert's cookbook count? http://www.amazon.com/The-Pot-How-Use-It/dp/0740791427
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Aug 27, 2014 18:37
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This is a really great thread idea! Did anyone know that James Joyce once wrote a book of gibberish? It's one of the best pranks in the literary world.
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Aug 29, 2014 00:39
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BananaNutkins posted:James Clavelle, who wrote historical fiction such as Shogun and Taipan, also wrote a one off fantasy book called Thrump-o-moto. It sounds very weird. He also directed To Sir With Love.
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Aug 29, 2014 01:04
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Early in his career Dean Koontz's wrote a war comedy in the spirit of Catch 22 or MASH called "hanging on" that was entertaining, and a heist novel called "after the last race". His children's poetry book is less interesting. Recently learned that mystery master Lawrence a Block wrote a ton of weird stuff, posing as a doctor and writing non-fiction books about kinky sex practices (including one about directing and starring in a porn flick). Jim Butcher of Dresden Files fame wrote a Spider-Man novel, though I dunno how good it is.
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Nov 23, 2014 23:30
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J. G. Ballard toned down the psychosexual impulses and explorations of the effects of modern society on the human mind to write Empire of the Sun, a fictionalized account of his own experiences growing up in WW2 Shanghai.
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Nov 25, 2014 01:16
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Roydrowsy posted:Early in his career Dean Koontz's wrote a war comedy in the spirit of Catch 22 or MASH called "hanging on" that was entertaining, and a heist novel called "after the last race". His children's poetry book is less interesting. I read a lot of Koontz when I was younger. I feel like his books did not age well as I got older. I have enough nostalgia about him and his books that I think I'd like to read Hanging On, just to see how it compares to the kookier stuff. Effectronica posted:J. G. Ballard toned down the psychosexual impulses and explorations of the effects of modern society on the human mind to write Empire of the Sun, a fictionalized account of his own experiences growing up in WW2 Shanghai. That's pretty cool. I saw the movie when it came out. I don't think I ever connected the film to Ballard. I also did not realize Christian Bale was in Empire of the Sun until just now.
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Nov 25, 2014 09:06
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I've never read it but Charles Bukowski wrote Pulp before he passed away. Instead of usual, semi-autobiographical novels, Pulp is a detective novel in the style of Raymond Chandler. It's on my "to-read" list.
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Nov 25, 2014 12:42
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Centripetal Horse posted:That's pretty cool. I saw the movie when it came out. I don't think I ever connected the film to Ballard. I also did not realize Christian Bale was in Empire of the Sun until just now. Careful going into that book. Its more depressing than Blood Meridian.
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Nov 25, 2014 19:38
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William Faulkner A Fable So, apparently, the reviews of this book weren't so high, but I'd have to say it's easily my favorite from Faulkner. I've been going through all things Faulkner for a few years now and it was the first book I read more than once. Most people know what his style was, Southern, Absalom, Absalom, many-people-making-one-rug-on-one-loom type of layered stories. "A Fable" is about World War I and it takes place in France, where a Corporal Stephan somehow gets 3,000 people to not attack from their trenches. It goes on like this, saying something along the lines of "Stop fighting and people stop dying" vs "Who can stop the cogs of war?" It's kind of everything that people wouldn't expect from him, but it was finished in the aftermath of his botched attempt at being a fighter pilot in the war. Well, actually, it was finished well after that, but from what I understand of Faulkner, his failure to fly in the war, teaching his brother to fly, and his brother's death in a flight accident lead to this work. It's hard to get too much information on it, as it wasn't a popular work of his, but back in 1955, it won a Pulitzer and the National Book Award. It's definitely worth a read.
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Nov 27, 2014 14:12
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:
Similarly, GRRM wrote a lot of stuff pre ASOIAF, one of the best being Sandkings, which won a Hugo and Nebula award and was adapted as an episode of The Outer Limits.
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Nov 27, 2014 14:43
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Avant-garde poet and art critic Apollinaire played an important role in promoting and explaining Cubism and was one of the guiding lights of the Dada anti-art movement. He wrote (under a pseudonym) LES ONZE MILLE VERGES (1,000 Rods), a sadistic porn novel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Onze_Mille_Verges Picasso said it was the best thing Apollinaire ever wrote.
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Nov 27, 2014 15:13
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