Works of fiction you must read in your life?

[catrina]

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

this is one of the first books i read that really moved me. i loved it as a short story (battle royale, the first chapter) and as a book.

i've been reading science non-fiction and autobiographies for the past 10 years, must return to some decent fiction.

 

[Klaatu]

"Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson.

Right on! Stephenson can at first seem to be a difficult read, and he'll remind you a lot of Thomas Pynchon, which put me off a bit at first--you'll find yourself going through a lot of other books to read up on the references he makes. Best consumed in small bites. Don't try to read 50-60 pages at time. Read a little, put it down, digest it, then continue. I've found Pynchon (V, The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and especially Gravity's Rainbow) to be best read with a "companion volume," at hand (which will clarify some of his more cryptic references. A couple of good ones are "A Gravity's Rainbow Companion," by Steven Weisenburger, and "A Companion to The Crying of Lot 49," by J. Kerry Grant.

Hate to be just another "me-too-er," but I'll second what's been said above WRT "If Now Now, When?" by Primo Levi

Also, "A Shipwrecked Sailor" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Not quite in the "magical realism" vein of his other stuff,
but a nice, short, good read.