R A Lafferty

[yngvi]

I owned 'fourth mansions' by Lafferty but gave it away. On the cover it had a quote from Roger Zelazny "whom the gods would destroy they first have read Fourth Mansions". I thought it was excellent and I also had a book of short stories called "Nine Hundred Grandmothers". Was anyone else ever into this guy?

I went to the expense of buying two other novels in Hardback "Space Chantey" and "Not to Mention Camels", but these turned out to be duds.

[Tim R. Mortiss]

I'm a Lafferty fan; he is among my favorite writers in any genre.

I liked "Space Chantey", it is a fun reworking of the Odyssey set in the Space Age.

"Not to mention camels" is a more difficult read, but still very interesting. Like PKD's "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", the book is about an evil messianic figure who seeks to impinge himself upon all of reality. And, of course, it is a novelization of Jesus's famous adage about camels and rich people.

[yngvi]

Nice to hear from another admirer of Lafferty's work. I'm a bit sorry I said Space Chantey was a 'dud' now, but it was always going to be a bit of a challenge as it's written in verse as I recall.

Fourth Mansions was my favourite 'cos it's full of ideas like the revenant 'returning people' who are so self important but have to soak their heads in water because of their amphibian leanings (alluding to the myth that toads can survive for years in dry conditions then come back to life). Lafferty plays this very well observing "there's so much less of them than meets the eye"

Lafferty reminds me of Zelazny and a bit like Bester. Do you think there's anyone else similar I might not have found yet. I'm always on the look out for new authors.

[K. Riehl]

Lafferty was best at the short story form. Neil Gaiman cites him as the best short story writer of the 70' and 80's.

Some collections by Lafferty
Strange Doings, Does Anyone Else Have Something Further Too Add?, Golden Gate and other Stories.

In novel form I liked Past Master and Reefs of Earth.

Have you tried Samuel R. Delaney? Give Dhalgren a try.

[yngvi]

thanks K. (can I call you that?)

I googled samuel delaney and I have seen Babel-17, The Einstein Intersection and The Fall of the Towers a million times in bookshops and libraries when I was younger but I have no idea whether I have read any of them . Never heard of Dhalgren, but I've just looked at reviews on Amazon which compare it with Proust (never read that guy either). I think I'll get off to the library and see what they've got.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[HardScienceFan]

er
have to agree
Lafferty i know only form his shorts
pun intended
I never read his novels

how can you not like ,eg.,Thus we Frustrate Charlemagne?
but he can be hard to read

[yngvi]

I loved "Thus we frustrate Charlemagne", but that was in "Nine Hundred Grandmothers", which I said I loved (I also really liked "Frog on the Mountain" and, was there a story called "Snuffles" about a Teddy Bear/god? also 'Slow Tuesday Night' etc. etc.

It was only 'Space Chantey' and 'Not to Mention Camels' which disappointed me.

[j. d. worthington]

Moving thread to General Book Discussions....