What's the most thought-provoking novel you've ever read? (page 7)

MegaDude

I enjoyed Stephen King's "Different Seasons" for its novella "Rita Heyworth and the Shawshank Redemption" upon which the movie is based. A great story about friendship, persistance and hope.

"The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kosinski. A horrific graphically violent story of a boy on his own in Poland during World War 2. A dark commentary about human beings in general.

A collection of short stories by Ernest Hemmingway, especially the story "The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber" about a person gaining control over their life.

"The Stand." Good vs. Evil with the last of remaining humankind after Armageddon hits the world in the form of a CIA-created virus.

The Spirit Catches you and You Fall Down - by Anne Fadiman About a Hmong girl with epilepsy and her parents battle with the medical establishment. Does a great job showing both sides of the story in the conflict between religious belief and scientific knowledge. Many parallels to JW blood issue.

E.

Narkissos

MM... about Hermann Hesse, http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/82611/1.ashx

Dostoievsky, of course...

And GBL already mentioned Camus...

Other great French writers which were very thought-provoking to me (and to whom I always come back gladly) are Jean Giono (Que ma joie demeure, Un roi sans divertissement), Marguerite Yourcenar (Mémoires d'Hadrien, Le coup de grâce).

I haven't read much English literature but these days I'm enjoying James Joyce (Ulysses) -- although slowly and certainly losing a lot of it.

scotsman

While I agree with Hesse, Dostoyevsky, Garcia Marquez & Harper Lee as though provoking novelists, the most for me was The World in the Evening by Christopher Isherwood. I read it while travelling in California and identified with the main character so strongly at the time that it hurt. I remember being in Yosemite feeling completely overwhelmed and unable to tell the Witness friends I was with because it meant telling them the deep dark secret about my sexuality. Took me 10 more years to tell them.

Have to add Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon but unless you're Scottish it's unlikely you'll have heard of it.

squinks

As a young child: My Book House: Through the Gate, Black Beauty, Brighty of the Grand Canyon

Adolescent: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man on the Moon Marigolds, Catcher in the Rye, Biography of Marie Antoinette(can't remember the exact title

Adult: I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb, Kite Runner, The Hammer of Eden, Angela's Ashes

I printed out everybody's favorites for next time I hit the bookstore!! Thanks all

diamondblue1974

Birdsong - Sabastien Faulks is by far the best book I have ever read; I will never again roll my eyes when an elderly bloke starts talking about the war.

Stephen Kings - The Stand also got me thinking, although I was most freaked out because I read it whilst I was full of flu, not the sort of book to read when you are stuffed full of antibiotics and painkillers to keep your fever down - Excellent book though and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Stephen Kings - IT is also one of my all time favourites, really taps into the difference between childish fears and adult fears...didnt scare me but definately got me hooked on Stephen King.

CoC isnt really a novel but I am currently reading it and it is an eye opener...

DB74 of the 'I can read what I want to now' class.

Whiskeyjack

Hmmmmmmm...

I guess it would be The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. It's the story of immigrant exploitation and a damning depiction of run amok capitalism (which we're fast returning to) set in Chicago during the beginning of the last century. I stayed up all night and couldn't put it down.

As a sixth generation Canadian, I had neither patience nor sympathy for the trials and challenges immigrants face in a new society where nobody will tell them the rules (Ontario has been innundated with new Canadians over the last thirty years and there is a lot of resentment and some conflict over who's a Canadian and who's not. as they impact the local culture).

This book made me a more empathetic person!

W.

Sith

How come nobody picked "The Truth That Leads To Eternal Life"?

Little Red Hen

My current read ~ Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. I can't help but feel the timliness of his thoughts on those who hate change and fear revoloution. The idea of keeping men appart from each other by making them fear and hate each other. I haven't finished the book yet, but so far, it is a great read. I never appreciated Steinbeck's stories or his use of language when I was in school.

simplesally

I have always love John Steinbeck ........... especially, Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath.

What's the most thought-provoking novel you've ever read?