FRANK'S LIT NOTES

Philosophical, existential, and sobering, Dante and the Lobster, published in the 1934 story collection, More Pricks than Kicks, is in my opinion, one of the greatest short stories ever written. And that ending!

Adapted into one of the most well-known films of the 20th century, Capote's short novel, is darker and more biting than its cinematic offspring.

Carver's 1983 story reminds us that true meaning can be found in the most unlikely of situations and at any time.

Published in the 1983 collection, Cathedral, Carver's poignant story is one of his best loved.

Delillo's magnum opus, published in 1997. A fragmented narrative sweep, progressing backwards in time through five decades from the 90s to the 50s.

Regarded as one of the great American novels, Gatsby is a classic tale of poor boy made good in the pursuit of love. BUT wrapped in Fitzgerald's symbolism and intricate patterning, and exploring themes of idealism and the American dream, it becomes one of the great works of 20th century literature.

Fitzgerald's last completed novel, Tender has an autobiographical poignancy with its depiction of Dick Diver, a potentially brilliant psychiatrist who fails to negotiate the vicissitudes of his own life. Themes exploring youth and innocence, love, and the dark side of the American dream, woven together in Fitzgerald's beautiful prose, make this an enduring literary classic.

One of Hemingway's "Nick Adams" cycle of stories, from the collection, In Our Time. Nick, probably in his late teens, naively gets sucker-punched and thrown off a train. Walking through the woods, he comes across Ad Francis a damaged ex-boxer, who seems initially friendly... but will Nick survive?

From the collection, Men without Women, published in 1927, Hemingway's much anthologised story is a masterpiece of timing, stripped dialogue and stylistic economy. That Hills leaves out so much, and is yet still so full of meaning and tension is testament to its success.

Kazuo Ishiguro's 1989 Booker Prize winning novel explores the life of Stevens, an ageing butler given the chance to reassess his life. Set in 1956, Remains also explores ideas of Britishness, missed opportunities, class, love, and the unreliable narrator.

One the 20th century's most infamous short stories, Shirley Jackson's 1948 master-piece, "The Lottery" caused a sensation when it was first published in the New Yorker. Seventy years on, and despite everything we've seen in that time, this seven page story still has the power to shock!

Regarded as one of James' greatest stories. Published in 1903

One of the great stories of the 20th, The Dead is the final story of Joyce's 1914 collection, Dubliners.

Lessing had to break new stylistic and structural literary ground with her most famous novel, in her attempts to capture the fractured and fragment life of a woman in the 1950s.

Lish's dysfunctional love-story focuses on an Illegal immigrant from China, and a PSTD suffering U.S soldier returning from Iraq. Two people on the margins, searching for meaning.

From the collection, The Dove's Nest, published in 1923, The Fly is a powerful story of power, paternal pride, and indifference to life - with a strong nod to World War I.

Brought to vivid life on screen by the Coen brothers 2008 film, No Country is a taut existential novel fate, value, and violence and death. A truly philosophical novel.

A contemporary classic, Atonement is a masterpiece of literary structure, an homage to literary genre, and a perfect example of the power of literary storytelling.

Melville's existential masterpiece, was first published in 1853. Ahead of its time in capturing the anomie and angst of the 20th century, Bartleby seems to encapsulate the modern search for meaning. It is one of the great short stories.

Miller's 1953 masterpiece is a fictionalised reworking of the Salem witch trial event that took place in Massachusetts in the 1690s. Written at the height of the US government's persecution of suspected communists, The Crucible is seen as an allegory of McCarthyism.

O'Connor's direct and unflinching style and thematic push are on full display here! Published in 1953.

A wonderful collection of essays on stories, storytelling and creativity. A book I often have with me, these essays remind us of the power of stories, to liberate and imprison. We should try to tell good ones, and not take them as Truth.

With the subsequent novels, I Married a Communist (1998) and, The Human Stain (2000), American Pastoral is the first book in Philip Roth's "American Trilogy" series.

First published in the New Yorker in 2002, Safran Foer's experimental and poignant story explores the limits of language in the face of our deep need to express our emotions.

Salter's beautiful, sometimes brutal novel is as close as prose can get to being poetry, whilst still remaining prose! This is a wonderful novel, full of passion, and the deft touches of life; a novel to be savoured, slowly.

One of Shakespeare's great tragedies, the first know performance of Lear was in 1606.

One of the great works of world literature, Hamlet seems to transcend culture, nationality and time.

Marketed as a novel, but in reality a collection of short stories written across many years. Olive Kitteridge is one of the great American characters, representing the stoical, resilient, struggling, and unspoken of marginalised majority.

Spanning three generations of Chinese families, Thien's novel explores the political and culture history of China through the 20th century.

Perhaps overlooked in the 60s dazzle of Updike, Capote and Pynchon, Stoner has grown in estimation through the decades. On the surface a simple story about a young man's journey through academia, Stoner is a subtle novel which holds its riches in all that remains unsaid. A delight for the patient reader.

Arguably Woolf's most well-known and best loved novel, Mrs Dalloway explores the deep questions of humanity through a middle-aged woman preparing for a party.

One of Woolf's great novels, To the Lighthouse is a meditation on time, self, art, memory, death, and identity.

A heart-wrenching portrayal of the disintegration of an American marriage in the 1960s, and all it represents as the American dream.