From: wetraprock@hotmail.com   
      
   "ROBBIE"  wrote:   
      
   > >> Oh yeah; Burgess, Bainbridge, Kingers, Barnes, Naipaul.   
   > >   
   > > The Burgess looks interesting (never heard of it but will look for it),   
   > > I've read some Bainbridge, the thing on Scott (all right but nothing   
   > > great IMO), I like Barnes (but then I like Flaubert and French culture   
   > > in general) and Naipaul (though I haven't read the one on the list).   
   > >   
   > > I've never read any Amis Sr. What would you suggest for a non-Brit   
   > > first timer?   
   >   
   > The Old Devils or Lucky Jim - better still: get his collected _Letters_   
   > funny and relentless twitting of all forms of wanky leftism. Many wrong and   
   > ridiculous things in there but that's personal correspondence for ya. He   
   > derides Waugh for example: 'A cunt who only wrote one good novel' which is   
   > the silliest thing he says in the whole book (because as a   
   > prose-monger/stylist Waugh could kick Amis's very fat bottom round the   
   > garden IMO whilst accepting that Amis Snr was the superior novelist in terms   
   > of actually dealing with life and not the mix of snobbery and theology that   
   > Waugh besieged his own talent with: interestingly there is a picture of Amis   
   > Snr in old age where he looks exactly like the late stage Waugh) - apart   
   > from many silly and embarassing things about Maggie Thatcher. But it packs a   
   > wallop and plants its flag against the kind posers and pseuds that have come   
   > on abundance since his day. It's deeply satisfying in these days to read   
   > someone who is prepared to call Picasso a 'piss-poor paint pusher'. He also   
   > calls Yoko Ono 'a nip' - ah, innocent pleasures, eh, Martha? He takes   
   > against Ronald Firbank as well (without even reading him - he would have   
   > hated I'm sure), as many people do, but Prancing Nigger is far more funny,   
   > beautiful and enjoyable to me than Lucky Jim - though that book is very   
   > important.   
      
   What are you talking about, Ronald Firbank?  The local bookstore had   
   some of his books, like prancing nigger, ca (something) and vermouth or   
   something.  Thomas Firbank's book I bought A Mountain looks far more   
   interesting, so i bought that instead.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)