krantz@csd2.UUCP (01/18/86)
Most Popular Novel Survey!!!!!! (results) Well, folks, thanks for the response. I'm pleased to say that I won a resounding victory in my bet with my friend, though the 'recency' phenomenon surely played a large role. He claimed that John Irving's World_According_To_Garp was the most popular novel of the past 10 years; I claimed it was something else, published just last year, and I was resoundingly right. About 30% of the people who responded to me had this book in their Top 5 list. The winner, by a large margin, is.... A_Winter's_Tale, by Mark Helprin. A wonderful novel, highly recommended for fans of all genres, SF, fantasy, adventure, serious lit, it covers them all.... Other finalists, who received substantial mention, were as follows: the Jean Auel Caveman books: Clan of the Cave Bear, etc. Niven & Pournelle's Mote In God's Eye, not surprising for hackers (no offense, just a fact). An amazing and pleasing surprise heavy entry: If on a winter's night a traveller... by Italo Calvino Other notable entries, for plain idiosyncratic weirdness: August, 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Fuzzies and Other People by H. Beam Piper and Weird Heroes, Volume 1 by Edward Byron Preiss And, by one genius reader, the amazing, stupendous, staggering, wholly brilliant Love In The Ruins by Walker Percy. That's all folks. Thanks for responding, and keep reading. Yours LIterarily, Michael Krantz - - - - - "How can I be overdrawn? I still have some checks left."
citrin@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Wayne Citrin) (01/20/86)
In article <2660012@csd2.UUCP> krantz@csd2.UUCP writes: > >The winner, by a large margin, is.... > >Winter's_Tale, by Mark Helprin. > Although I'm happy to see this (it was #1 on my list), I'm also really surprised. "Garp" was a major media event, there were major profiles of John Irving in Time and Newsweek, I believe it reached the #1 spot on the NY Times Bestseller list, and the announcement that a movie would be produced with Robin Williams was a major news story. On the other hand, although "Winter's Tale" was critically acclaimed (I don't think I've ever seen a more enthusiastic review in the Times), neither the book nor Helprin got nearly as much attention as "Garp" and Irving did, I don't believe that "Winter's Tale" ever reached #1 on the bestseller lists (although I could be wrong on that), and the announcement of a movie version went almost unnoticed. (Incidentally, Martin Scorsese will be directing.) 1984 was unusual for having three good, serious novels at or near the top of the bestseller list at the same time: "Winter's Tale," "The Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco (I would have guessed that this was the most popular novel of 1984), and "August," by Judith Rossner. I also believe that "The White Hotel" appeared late in 1984, but I'm not sure about that. 1984 was a good year for good popular novels. Wayne Citrin (ucbvax!citrin)