Can you recommend ...?

 

    Following on from the Recommended and sought post on Cornflower, and the reader recommendations here, Oxslip has asked us all for help with her holiday reading, and here are her specifications:

"I need a book that will last 14days. For a 2d train journey down through France, 10d walking in Corsica, 2d train journey back and I'm quite a fast reader. So something densely written with lots of plot and lots of pages available in paperback. I know it's quite a bit to ask, my other half will be on his Kindle so I can't use that, but I don't want to carry too much up and down the GR20 Any suggestions?"

    So, what do you think? The first thing to come to my mind was Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy. At almost 1500 pages, and in paperback, it's a book I enjoyed enormously, though it's quite a while since I read it. A love story and the story of India, it is "vast and amiably peopled", "vivid, evocative and beautifully written", "a marvel of nineteenth-century storytelling in the language of today... This is quite a novel". And from the front cover of my edition: "Make time for it. It will keep you company for the rest of your life."

    I know of someone who took that book on holiday and literally carved it into four or five sections, passing on each chunk to her husband to read as soon as she'd finished it!

    Any other ideas?

Comments

[Barbara MacLeod]

The Tree of Man by Patrick White

[Mr Cornflower]

Paradise Lost. A dramatic plot full of incident (knowing how it ends is not a problem); compelling characters; brilliant and densely written verse; and LONG!

"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit/Of that forbidden tree..."

This should be sung out loud to the theme tune from The Flintstones!

[stujallen]

either of two long Durrell collection alexandra or avingon books ,olive manning not read it but have it and is a chunky book ,don quixote one my favourites all the best stu

[charlotte]

I would suggest AS Byatts "The Children's Book" - though it may not last the whole trip....Have a lovely holiday.

[Mrs.B.]

How about The Quincunx by Charles Palliser? A doorstopper of a book and riveting enough to read while on holiday.

[m]

The Quincunx would be wonderful, only trouble is it's so riveting that you might read it too quickly.

[Mystica]

The Golden Age Tahmina Anam. It was recommended by Sakura of Chasing Bawa and I have just got it and it is a gorgeous story (though may not last the whole journey!)

[jodi]

Mark Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War.

[Marina McIntire]

Rebecca West, Black Lamb, Grey Falcon.
Great huge story of Yugoslavia. Wonderfully written! As it happens, I read it on a train through France, Switzerland, and Italy many years ago. Loved it then, and I would consider re-reading it.

[Claire]

Wolf Hall or A Place of Greater Safety both by Hilary Mantel. Both densely written with lots of characters.

[Pips]

When I was going around India, I read a few huge books to avoid carrying too much. The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas) is a whopper and has an absorbing plot. And I second A Suitable Boy!

[Sandy]

I second Wolf Hall. But no book would last me 14 days. I suggest you use the time to write one!

[adele geras]

I'm with Sandy....no book would last me 14 days either as I'm a very fast reader but Bleak House is what I would take, because I haven't read it and it's huge. Or Place of Greater Safety.

Dombey and Son lasted me a week when we went to Venice. I read it on two train journeys from Manchester to Venice and every evening before bed. It ran out in Paris on the way home...if you're walking, sightseeing etc during the days, then while you're actually IN the holiday place you may not be doing daytime reading. I would still take a backup. Two fat books...take fewer shoes than you'd planned to, perhaps!

[Alison M.]

What about the day of 'em all in terms of bulk, "War & Peace"?
I'm not a fan of historical novels myself but Ken Follett's "The Pillars of The Earth" is a/ huge & b/ quite well written & very well researched.

[Alison M.]

Ooops! missed out 2 "d's", "daddy" of 'em all I meant.

[B R Wombat]

William Gaddis, anyone? I've just got The Recognitions from the library and am wondering whether to start on such a huge book in this weather - too hot, too sleepy?

[oxslip]

Thank you all, Cornflower, Mister Cornflower and readers for your recommendations. Some old friends that I'd forgotten and would love to re-read, plus plenty of things new to me. It's an embarrassment of riches and I've made a little list to peruse and choose.
The unwritten subtext is that I probably am incapable of abandoning a book I like after reading, though I know that's how teenagers manage when going round the world. I find it really hard not knowing if it will be adopted and loved, hence why I've never been a successful Book Crossing member.
And Adele I wish one pair of shoes less would make for one more book, but I'm only taking walking boots and Birkenstocks as the GR20 involves quite a lot of big ascents and I'm already desperately trying to minimise the weight I'm carrying. So no stilettos to toss out sadly!
Many thanks again, I look forward to reading your recommendations this holiday or another time.

[oxslip]

Just tried this, my husband thinks I've had too much gin.

[Harriet Smart]

As a teenager I managed to make Solzhenitsyn's "August 1914" and a copy of Harpers and Queen last for a three week round trip to a farm in Provence as my only reading matter. It worked quite well as the story never seemed to go anywhere, you were left with long prospects/suggestions of what might happen, which I could contemplate when I did not have the book to hand. I have to admit never reading it since - but maybe it is time for a revisit. But I want the long train journey across France to go with it... With Harpers I was reduced to reading the adverts for cosmetic surgery.
I would now plump for something big and classic like Middlemarch because you can study a few paragraphs in isolation and get a huge amount from it, no matter now well you know and love the story.
Reading on trains also makes me think of any Trollope who works wonderfully well on any long train journey for me. Perhaps it is because he wrote many of them on the train in the morning, but there is a definite journey rhythm in them. They allow you to put them down and pick the up again without taking offence at it, which is useful while travelling.

[Rhys]

I am reading The Man who Loved Children by Christina Stead for my Bookclub read and we are all finding it such an engrossing but long read that we have put back our Bookclub meeting to make sure everyone has had enough time to finish it.....so possibly worth a dip.

[Susie Vereker]

If it isn't too late, could you buy another Kindle?

[Elaine]

The Way we Live Now by Anthony Trollope
Cathedral of the Sea by Idelfonso Falcones
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Jonathan Strange and Dr Norell by Susannah Clarke

Happy holiday!