Unrecognised gems

[crab]

I started this topic mainly so I can tell you how damn good Twins by Maureen Lawrence is. Go out, all of you, and buy a review copy. Then go and produce it because as far as I can find it's only been shown once, and that is a travesty. It's just this brilliant play about two twins, middle aged, one of whom has some sort of special needs, under siege by the Bailiffs. It's all set as a dialogue, but I would probably say this is pretty much the best play I've ever read. It's got this kind of resigned anarchist sentiment beneath it, and this kind of prevailing despair which contrasts really weirdly with their suddenly bursting into childish games. I picked this out to do for my comparative essay, and thought I'd bookmark the best moments and, well, I'm kind of sticking a bookmark in every couple of pages.

Anyone else got their undiscovered literary gem they want to share? Cult classics don't count, only if you think basically nobody's heard of them.

[GorillaBearBear]

There's a couple of books that I think don't get nearly enough attention. I would say the best example I can think of is "Carter Beats the Devil" by Glen David Gold. It's very difficult to describe because it veers between romance, biography, thriller to just general caper quite a lot. The impressive thing about that is that he handles all of these atmospheres brilliantly, although the romantic bits are probably the most well written. The characterisation is fantastic - he knows when to make a character sympathetic and when to demonise them - and the novel has a brilliant sense of place and period. You pick up a lot of stuff in the subtext where the only reason that it is subtext is because it wouldn't have been talked about at the time (although, being set in the 1920s it does reflect the dramatic shift in attitudes). Generally, the book takes you an a fairly long journey that makes you think about a lot of stuff on the way, then neatly ties it up with a really satisfying ending.

Oh, the framing is also brilliant. The way it tells you events from the past by showing you a secret service background check before shifting neatly into the "present" part of the story is brilliant. Also, it did the whole "story following the 3 acts of a magic show" thing long before The Prestige.

[crab]

I might have to have a gander at that, if I can find a copy.