Tuesday, March 01, 2011

The ten best neglected literary classics

For The Observer, Rachel Cooke came up with a list of the ten best neglected literary classics.

One novel on the list:
A Way of Life, Like Any Other
Darcy O’Brien (1977)

The bastard child – if you can imagine it – of Slim Aarons and JD Salinger, A Way of Life, Like Any Other is a coming-of-age story like no other. Set in 50s Hollywood, the novel is narrated by a teenager called Salty, whose father once starred in westerns and whose mother was a goddess of the silver screen. In the old days, they enjoyed the high life, but now their careers have crashed, their marriage is broken, and the only way is down. Stylish, hilarious and touching, Salty is every bit as deadly (and as deadpan) a narrator as Holden Caulfield before him.
Read about another book on the list.

Joan Frances Turner "[r]ecommended [A Way of Life, Like Any Other] to anyone who likes either Hollywood decay or unsentimental coming-of-age stories with a knife in the back."

--Marshal Zeringue