The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction
Feb 1st, 2010 by MrCult
Available now from: $47.88
Buy now: The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction
Product Description
“An eclectic, essential guide to the world’s greatest cult authors and the facts behind their fiction that no self-respecting student should be without. Looking for critical coverage of your favorite author? Want to know why cult fiction moves people in unexpected ways? This little gem reveals all.” -Fresh Direction, Oct. 2005 “Publishers have to think harder about how to reach the hordes of critical consumers of film, TV, internet and pop culture who should be r… More >>
Available now from: $47.88
Average Rating: 4.5
Buy now: The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction
Rating: 5 / 5
This little book has been the source of so much pure unadulterated joy in my life that I’m forced to marvel constantly at what a wondrous mix of creative juices and inspiration must have fueled its creation. It’s great. Here’s why:
1. Though the book purports to be a “cult” guide, it does include in its contents many authors who are not obscure, one-hit wonders (though it does have a section dedicated to these) including but not limited to: Borges, Camus, Hemingway, Chandler, Doyle, and O’Connor among others. This results in a well-rounded primer to popular literature, not just an obscure reference guide for lit-hipsters.
2. The style and tone. This book is written in a factual, informed, eloquent, and referential tone. It is humorous without being campy, straightforward without being overly concise, and literary without being elitist. Though it is written by Brits, if anything, it possesses a bias towards the non-Anglophile writer, greatly valuing, and even cherishing, the contributions of those who are not the creators, but rather the inheritors, of the mother tongue.
3. The breadth of offerings. This is a tiny book, measuring roughly 6 x 5 inches with 360 some odd pages, and yet because the font is small, it manages to pack a ton of information between its pages. I have owned it for 4 years and am still discovering new things inside it.
4. Last but not least, there are several ’sidebars’ in the book where the authors provide historical information, quotes, and author profiles. In addition, there are in the back section of the book, several smaller sections which are fascinating, and that detail cult book characters, author marginalia–with all that that entails–mostly factual novels, and so on.
That this book is out of print is a travesty. Of all the literature guides I’ve ever been referred to, best 100 books, 50 must-reads, etc. this book blows them all away, and does so with style and grace.
Rating: 3 / 5
I read this book after reading and greatly enjoying the “Rough Guide to Classic Novels”. “Cult Fiction” is quite disappointing compared to that book because it focuses on the authors themselves instead of the books. The book covers far too many authors so the bios are too brief to be informative. It also cites some of their most important works, but again, there’s no meat. Skip this one and read “Classic Novels” instead.
Rating: 5 / 5
Although I don’t have much to add to the previous reviews, all of which I essentially agree with, I would like to register my endorsement of this small, densely packed, guide to “off the beaten track” (for the most part) fiction, much of it from the last 30 years and most of it from the past century. THE ROUGH GUIDE TO CULT FICTION is intelligent and literate, and of far higher quality than several similar breezy guides to literature I previously looked at. I picked the book up for episodic reading on trains and so forth during a trip to Europe, and it turned out to be perfect for that kind of situation. I discovered at least two dozen books that I would like to read as well as ten or so previously unknown authors whom I am glad to now know about and would like to investigate further, and I was warned off equal numbers of books and authors. Thus, for me, the several hours I spent with the guide promise to have been time very well spent.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book will fool most. It covers far more than simple “cult fiction.” The author presents short biographies on many authors, some well known and some obscure. They include writers such as Joyce, not exactly a “cult” writer, so that gives an example of the range of writers cover in this guide. The authors cover hundreds of writers. It is a great buy and worth the investment.
In addition to the short biographies, they have selected the best works of each author. For someone like Dorothy Sayers or a similar writer, that is a great aid for a reader seeking guidance.
Based on their book I came up with a reading list as follows, i.e.:
BOOKS FOR A LONG SEA VOYAGE (taken mostly from the guide’s suggestions):
1. Dorothy Sayers: Gaudy Night
2. Gertrude Stein: Three Lives
3. Hunter S. Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
4. Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Grey
5. Heinrich Boll: Last Honour of Katharina Blum
6. Charles Bukowski: Post office
7. Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and the Margarita
8. Albert Camus: The Outsider
9. Gabriel Garcia Marguez: One Hundred Years of solitude
10. Tadeusz Konwicki: A Minor Apocolypse
11. and 12. Nabokov: Pale Fire and Pnin (two books)
13. Proust; Vol. I, In Search of lost Time.
Great book. 5 stars.
Rating: 5 / 5
“The Rough Guide To Cult Fiction” is one of those books you can pick up and open at random and spend a couple of hours skipping around in, making notes about which book described you would like to read next. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s useful too. The largest section, “Authors”, is an encyclopedic listing nicely blended between cult authors you know of but haven’t got around to yet (Raymond Carver, James Ellroy, Milan Kundera, Martin Amis) and those you’ve never heard of but sound interesting (Weldon Kees? Victor Pelevin? John Fante? Anna Kavan?) There’s also a large section devoted to “one-hit wonders” (“A Clockwork Orange”, “A Confederacy Of Dunces”, “Little Big Man”, “All The King’s Men”). There’s a section devoted to cult characters (Sherlock Holmes, Holden Caulfield.) There’s a section for graphic novels (Neil Gaiman, Harvey Pekar) and a section of readable cult non-fiction (“Dispatches”, “A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius”). Most of the entries are witty and informative. Some are maybe a little too opinionated (it gets tiring always being told how transgressive and rule-breaking all these writers are. Sometimes there’s too much conformity in being so non-conformist.) Even so, this is a very worthwhile little reference book, to be kept beside your bedside.