Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Below isNew Yorkerjournalistand author William Finnegans list.
He went to Spain in 1936, during the civil war there, to help fight Fascism.
He was wounded at the front, shot through the throat by a sniper.
His peerless moral grasp of the dangers of totalitarianism began in Spain.
Its not uproarious, like Roughing It, but it dives deep into its milieu.
The best of the Nathan Zuckerman novels, and that is saying something.
I hearthe TV seriesis good.
The books are a universe.
The language sizzles and hisses in this 2011 Irish novel set in a steampunk future.
Theres a gang war, indelible characters, a martial music.
Sweet Baba Jay, did anyone ever really speak this way?
Its wordplay at the level of Nabokov, but with a very different, Gaelic purpose.
Fucker Burke and Wolfie Stanners set their face against the hardwind as they climbed the bluffs.
The waves fell; withdrew and fell again, like the thud of a great beast stamping.
The characters emerge through their voices, through the eyes of the others.
Its partly the twilight of the British Empire, but mostly a brooding meditation on language and love.
Bernard, the writer, delivers the great summation.
Nothing happens except life.
Invisible Manhas become something of an invisible book.
Its an American masterpiece and a pure, if searing, joy to read.
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
But the vitality ofInvisible Manis undiminished, and its most caustic insights into American life still painfully relevant.
The most piercing, most beautiful sea tale Ive read.
Nine working men set sail on an old schooner out of Grand Cayman, hunting green turtles.
They talk to fill the ocean silence, their speech unattributed, and the drama circles and tightens.
Green turtle very mysterious, mon.
The characters sharpen into high suspense and tragedy.
It tells you where to park and how much youll pay (in 1963 prices).
Mainly, though, its about waves, and how to describe them clearly and accurately.
At least, thats what I loved about it as a kid, and still do.
It covers several hundred surf spots between Point Conception and the Mexican border.
The Namib dryness of its photo captions never ages.
