an itinerant irritants favorite of favorites
Discover the itinerant irritant's favorite books: a curated list of literary gems from Knut Hamsun's Hunger to Saramago's Gospel. Explore essential fiction and autobiography picks for discerning readers.
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Labyrinths
by Jorge Luis Borges
Forty short stories and essays have been selected as representative of the Argentine writer's metaphysical narratives.
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Tower of Babel
by Elias Canetti
Auto-da-Fé, Elias Canetti's only work of fiction, is a staggering achievement that puts him squarely in the ranks of major European writers such as Robert Musil and Hermann Broch. It is the story of Peter Kien, a scholarly recluse who lives among and for his great library. The destruction of Kien through the instrument of the illiterate, brutish housekeeper he marries constitutes the plot of the book. The best writers of our time have been concerned with the horror of the modern world--one thinks of Kafka, to whom Canetti has often been compared. But Auto-da-Fé stands as a completely original, unforgettable treatment of the modern predicament.
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Hunger
by Knut Hamsun
A modern classic about a penniless, unemployed young writer, this powerful, autobiographical novel paints an unforgettable portrait of a man driven to the edge of self-destruction by forces beyond his control.
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The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
by José Saramago
A wry, fictional account of the life of Christ by Nobel laureate Jos Saramago A brilliant skeptic, Jos Saramago envisions the life of Jesus Christ and the story of his Passion as things of this earth: A child crying, the caress of a woman half asleep, the bleat of a goat, a prayer uttered in the grayish morning light. His idea of the Holy Family reflects the real complexities of any family, and--as only Saramago can--he imagines them with tinges of vision, dream, and omen. The result is a deft psychological portrait that moves between poetry and irony, spirituality and irreverence of a savior who is at once the Son of God and a young man. In this provocative, tender novel, the subject of wide critical discussion and wonder, Saramago questions the meaning of God, the foundations of the Church, and human existence itself.
