Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction (Rough Guides Reference Titles)

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I first picked up this book I was immediately reminded of the 'AMOK 4th Dispatch' catalogue. Back in 1989 the AMOK bookstore out of L.A. released a sourcebook for the extremes of information in print. The book was an unbelievable find, a real jewel in the pre-internet age. Virtually every author who appeared in the 'PULPS' section of that catalogue has found themselves listed in this new ROUGH GUIDE.
For anyone who is tired of the bestseller lists and is looking for something different to read, this guidebook is indispensable! It features all the offbeat, wonderful authors who can lay claim to breaking new ground in literature. Some are well known bestselling authors (Vonnegut, Camus, Tolkien, Ellroy, Palahniuk, Pynchon), others are celebrated more for their lifestyles than their actual work (the infinitely emulated Kerouac, Bukowski and Henry Miller), still others are infamous (Selby, de Sade, Burroughs, Beirce) while many, many others have been either criminally ignored, forgotten or just faded with time (Crews, Himes, Mishima, Bowles, Dick, Willeford, Trocchi, Gysin et al.)
All have devoted (some would say slavish) readerships that have allowed for their works to remain in print one way or the other over the years. I have many of the writers in this collection but the real treasures are to be found with some of the other entries in the guide. You're bound to discover several new writers in this collection which, along with some extra facts that you may not have known about some of your favourite authors, makes it well worth buying. Some of you who haven't yet delved into the literary underworld are in for a real treat. I envy your upcoming voyage of discovery.
The guide is set up simply and efficiently. It covers over 200 novelists but also branches out to include classic cult books by authors who never became cult figures themselves, as well as graphic novels, beloved characters, non-fiction faves and even some trivia. I know about most of the authors mentioned in the book but there were still quite a few surprises as well as some illuminating facts, bios and recommended reads that made it well worth buying. I highly, highly recommend this guide for people who are ready to branch out from the bestsellers, the old classics and mainstream pulp. A whole new world of ideas awaits...

I picked this up on a recent vacation to Minnapolis and found I couldn't put it down. I do think the book does omit some key cult writers but the ones who are included are handled by writers who obviously know their subjects. This guide includes a lot of my favorite writers (Jonathan Coe, Italo Calvino, Jasper Fforde, Borges, etc.) and I was pleased to find out some things about their lives and work that I didn't know before. The guide points out the writers' essential works and suggests what a particular writer might have in common with another writer. The book is often funny without being mean-spirited.

First, a word about the term cult fiction, and its implications. When I first saw the title of this little book, I assumed it would be full of strung-out wreckages like Burroughs and Dick. While the Rough Guide does contain them (as it should), its scope is far greater than writers of that type. In here you'll find a wind range of novelists reviewed, including Graham Greene, John Fowles, even Zane Grey. Bottom line: an excellent resource for readers.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.