fiction files redux discussion

I had never heard of him before yesterday, but article I read about his fiction has me intrigued. Have any of you read anything by him? If yes, what's a good place to start?

hey patty! i haven't read anything by him... yet! but i put Night and the City on my to-read list in 2009! it is number 37 of 514. i suspect i was reading something similar which name-dropped the title (i was re-reading some cornell woolrich at the time) and that prompted the add.

will be curious to see if anybody replies with a different recommendation as that seems to be his most popular book -- at least on goodreads. of the dorks i know well, ben and neil seem to be the most likely candidates to have read kersh. while it might be vexing to some, sometimes i really wish you could tag people on posts on goodreads because it seems to be hard to find them -- even myspace used to tell do a better job of alerting me to new posts, i think (though i suspect i have idealized myspace in my old age)

<3

The article I read said things like, "What really strikes the modern reader is how rude and sexually explicit a mainsteam novel could be three years before the Lady Chatterly trial" and "few novels, comic or otherwise, are so nauseatingly awash with bodily fluids."

The article mentioned several novels and a book of short stories. I should probably just check the library and see if they have any.

i am happy i did not read your latest comment before i put the only book in my library system of his to borrow (best of gerald kersh -- i think these are the short stories. they have others but only available at the reference library) on hold because i am not a particular fan of bodily fluid fiction. i used to get so mad about the quantity of snot in stephen king novels. :P

i am curious about the sexual explicit thing and the phrasing of that. how mainstream is mainstream? can we compare kersh's commercial success with a juggernaut like lady chatterly's lover? anyway. it's like my boyfriend james branch cabell i suppose and his immorality trial for jurgen. maybe i have trouble believing they were mainstream because they were then so completely forgotten...

"maybe i have trouble believing they were mainstream because they were then so completely forgotten... "

There is a brilliant little essay waiting to be written right there.

I'm reading a novel now by Hesba Stratton (aka Sarah Smith) who was apparently hugely popular for a while, she wrote 40 novels! And she supposedly had a big influence on Dickens, but I had never heard of her before. The reading/publishing world is so fickle!

I'm going to the library tomorrow. I'm going to see if they have the same collection that you have on hold, then we could maybe read them together-ish.

Patty wrote: "I'm going to the library tomorrow. I'm going to see if they have the same collection that you have on hold, then we could maybe read them together-ish."

This is the library info for the one i got. Somebody has it checked out now and they're supposed to be returning it March 3rd... but I am first in line for getting it next so it would be great if you can find that one and we could read it at relatively the same time. i'll let you know when i get it in my hot little hands. hurray! :)

The best of Gerald Kersh
by Kersh, Gerald, 1911-1968.
Contributors: Raven, Simon, 1927-
Year/Format: 1960, Book , viii, 343, [1] p. ;
Publication information: London : Heinemann, c1960.

there doesn't seem to be an ISBN listed.

i will reply to your other message too but i have to run out into the freezing for coke zero. i'll be back though! :)

I just checked the library catalog, and the only one they have is Men Without Bones and Other Stories. It's supposed to be on the shelf, so I'll look for it tomorrow. Maybe it will have some of the same stories, at least.

they have that at the reference library so if it turns out to contain stories not in the one i've requested then i can make a trip there. i try to avoid reading books in the reference library because invariably i just wish i could take them home and read them comfortably instead. :)

i had never heard of hesba (what a great name!! i want to name myself that too now) stratton until your message number 5! i am fascinated and will be curious to hear what you think of her book.

i've always loved finding writers through other writers and their influences, or books mentioned within books but then there are times when it's just so surprising that the whole world has forgot, that the books are rare and out of print. and i sort of shudder at the sheer breadth of literature, with its own undiscovered country, and how i am like burgess meredith, a bespectacled human in the twilight zone, dreaming of time enough at last. :)

of course, i am mad for james branch cabell but found lady chatterly's lover boring, so it's not surprising that none of it makes sense to me. looking forward to seeing where i land with our friend gerald kersh.

:)

Never heard of Kersh or Hesba. Which is so amazing. I hope to hear more about both from you two.

Well, the book wasn't on the shelf, which happens a lot at the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Branch. They also didn't have any of the James Branch Cabell they claim is on their shelves. Which book should I put on hold for delivery?

No idea. The authors I am recommending without reservation these days are Edward St. Aubyn and Will Self.

And Evie Wyld, All the Birds Singing.

I started reading his collection Men Without Bones the other day (available on kindle for $1.99!). It's a "highly recommended" book in Stephen King's Danse Macabre (which is a survey of mid-century horror). So far, it's okay... the writing is excellent (sort of like John Collier) but it's not actually horror; it's more like witty, amusing, well-crafted stories of the fantastic. I can see these being in the New Yorker or something. They feel very light-hearted and 50s.

I am looking forward to reading the rest.

I'm glad you liked these Ben, and sorry it took me so long to respond here!

I ended up not liking them much, but I agree with your assessment: 50s, lighthearted, witty, well-crafted, and fantastic.