Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Louise Welsh's literary top 10

I just came across this list by Louise Welsh, an author whose work I've already praised here and here.

From her literary top 10 list:
My favourite novel that nobody else seems to have heard of

I’m sure lots of folk must have read Vladimir Nabokov’s The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, but no one I’ve ever mentioned it to has. It’s a brilliant detective novel, an exploration of memoir, memory, identity and the art of fiction. Sebastian is a writer and, while I recognise it can be a failure of imagination to simply write about writers, I like books about my profession as much as plumbers, nurses, sales assistants probably enjoy books about theirs. Sebastian’s brother finds part of a short story on his desk. “As he a heavy sleeper, Roger Rogerson, old Rogerson bought old Rogers bought, so afraid Being a heavy sleeper, old Rogers was so afraid of missing tomorrows…” A great evocation of the writer’s craft.
As it happens, I've read the novel and, while it may not be "my favourite novel that nobody else seems to have heard of," is among my favored Nabokov novels.

--Marshal Zeringue