My candidate for 'Hidden Gem' is 'The Complete Astral Traveller' (by Christopher Nichols). It's dark comedy on steroids, as the main character attempts to crystalize his pessimist/existentialist philosophy in his own book 'Life, the Afterlife and Everything'. If you like the unconventional and do not shock easily, take a look at it.
I have not seen seen it in many bookshops. It's online though.

I'm reading a book right now that was recently recommended elsewhere and which I had never heard of before (though any one who's studied American lit here would surely know of it) called The Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. The writing is astonishing in its apparent simplicity - yet it's rich in meaning, with the blackness of satire, although that satire keeps to the background like judiciously added spice. (I'll try not to go purple on you....) Anyway, there's this young couple - not quite 30, but they think they're getting middle-aged - story is set in the 1950s.... They had met as students, when he saw himself as a brilliant nonconformist, and others saw him as full of potential, if not for anything in particular; and she had just finished acting school. They imagined themselves carrying on as the figures they imagined themselves to be, but then April became pregnant so Frank got a job and before you can say 'Jack's your uncle' (I mean Bob) they'd bought a house in suburbia, had another baby, and saw their dreams flicker away. The story begins at the opening of a community play in which April plays the lead part, in a stab at recovering her lost dream of being an actress. The play's a flop; she's a flop; and this is the instrument of change. They have spent years living according to the prescribed social formula, dissatisfied all the while, but now April is determined that she and Frank will recover their lost dreams, that they will become again who they REALLY are, and so she talks him into selling up everything so that they can move to France, where she will work as a NATO secretary and he can go and find himself. Now I won't say any more than that, except that this is a tragedy.

Silver, if you like Florida crime novels check this out. Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen (2004)

Funny writing style. The 'bad guys' are always a little ove the top. I think I could handle living as the MC Mick Stanahan does though.

Good opening hook too.

Brian

Hey Brian,
Yeah, I've heard of that one and heard nothing but good things about it. That's probably one that I would porbably like a lot, must check it out.

Thanks,
Adam

Thought the Title might interest you. LOL
He has a second called 'Skin Tight' but I liked the first one better. Start with it.

Here are the opening first lines. Some hook eh?
You'll have to excuse any typo's as I am transcribing this from an audio book from Audible.com


At the stroke of eleven on a cool April night a woman named Joey Perone went overboard from the luxury deck of the cruiser M.V. Dutchess. Plunging towards the dark atlantic, Joey was too dumfounded to panic. 'I maried an asshole,' she thought knifing head first into the waves. The impact tore off her silk skirt, blouse, panties, wrist watch and sandals...

Brian.

I love it already.

Funnily, when I first read, I thought the opening line was :

"You'll have to excuse any typo's as I am transcribing this from an audio book from Audible.com"

That would be a catchy opening line, too.

I think you will enjoy it. One woman's is killed in his backyard when a sky diver who's shute did not open lands on him. In another book a guy is killed when his Sea-doo hits two copulating turtles.

Adam if your too busy to read as much as you like and spend a lot of time in the car as I do you should check out Audible.com.

It is a real treat when you can download an unabridged book read by the author as I just did with 'Bag of Bones' by Stephen King. You get the author's intonations and in this book in PARTICULAR HE USES A LOT OF (soory about the caps) Yankee accents which I would have had trouble duplicating in my head. Maybe I should check out the book though and see how he handled the dialect. Novel idea there.

Anyway enjoy, off to work.

brian.


<Added>

Should have been: I think you will enjoy it, he has a quirky sense of humor.

My hidden gems are Ripley Bogle by Robert MacLiam Wilson - a lyrical rant from an Oxford educated Belfast-born tramp. and Behind a Mask by Louisa May Alcott - an incredibly gripping story of a seemingly sweet governess with lots to hide. Not at all in the vein of Little Women!

Not quite so hidden, but not given as much praise as it deserved (in my opinion), was 'Death and the Penguin' by Andrey Kurkov.

L

You should try something quintessentially British, Silver and therefore I propose 'All Quiet On The Orient Express' by Magnus Mills. Mills is better known for his debut 'The Restraint of Beasts' which is also brilliant. He wrote it in between shifts as a London Bus driver and got a six figure advance. All before WriteWords!

Shay

That sounds interesting Shay. In 'The Restraint of Beast' which deals with two Scots fence builders is there any good Scots dialect?

Brian.

It's good to see this thread getting a second wind. I struggle with this addiction on a daily basis.

Brian,
Did you see the Carl Hiassen interview on a 60 minutes segment last night? It was good stuff.

No I didn't. You should have told me then... not now... I would have loved to see it.

Have you got his book yet?

Brian.

Brian,
I didn't know about it until it popped on the telly, I would have alerted you, I promise. No, I haven't been by the bookstore yet. Skinny Dip is on the list, though. Mike Wallace certainly hyped it up.

Brian,

There's not much Scottish dialect, not like Irvine Welsh! It's a great black comedy. 'All Quiet On The Orient Express' is a much slower pace, but in it's way just as darkly comic. It will have you screaming at the lead character's inability to assert himself.

Shay

Hiassen's 'Basket Case' is the only one of his I've read, but it's very good.

Has anyone read any John McCabe? I think 'Stickleback' is hilarious.