Let me say, to start off, that I disagree with Cynthia Ozick, who has called his later two novels, The Awkward Age and The Golden Bowl, his greatest work. I don't think so. His earlier work is what I truly like. And they're short, the way his books should be. They say he got prolix in his older age when he learned to dictate his material and then have it transcribed. He loves to beat the bushes around and around a subject. Virginia Woolf, in one of her letters, tells of an accounter with James and does a take-off on his style of not being able to get to the point without going round and round. The Gold Bowl runs to something over 400 pages in the edition I read; I could have cut it down to about 150 pages without losing anything. I dislike it when a writer forces me to edit his books if I am to enjoy them. Two other writers who are too prolix for my tastes are the later work of John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates. Like many authors who are prolific, they tend to have what we used to call, when I was younger, diahrhea of the typewriter. The early James, however, is superb, and one of his shorter novels, not to exclude others (see how I'm imitating James), is certainly The Turn of the Screw. One of his strengths lies in indirection and not being explicit, which makes the reader bring his or her own imagination to bear. I like that, and wish I could do it. Joseph Cowley

I think the Complete Stories is a good place to begin reading Hemingway. He and Faulkner were extremely to my generation of young writers. However, there are only a handful of his stories that are great, and the commentator above has mentioned most of them. I, too, like his early Nick Adams stories. His novels are probably less impressive today. He his too immature and "macho" to be someone we can identify with. But, of the novels, you should at least read The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. For Whom the Bells Toll is also quite interesting. He also wrote some awful junk, like Across the River and Into the Trees. I would also like to mention, perhaps because of my interest in the 1920's, that I found A Moveable Feast quite enjoyable, though, basically, because of his macho pose and immaturity, he is essentially full of bullshit. However, he did invent a powerful prose style, which can be deadly if you try to immitate it. Joseph Cowley

Catch-22 is a masterpiece. On the strength of that, I went on to read Something Happened and Good as Gold. The last two are good books, but not enough to make me want to read more of Heller. Joseph Cowley

Fitzgeral was a alcoholic who never stopped drinking, though, unlike Hemingway, he made the effort, especially in later life. His masterpiece is The Great Gatsby, though it is an immature work. Though not as bad or as immature as his first two novels, which are just awful (though they brought him money and attention as a writer). I personally like his last two novels because, though not really finished or perfected, show some emotional growth. Other than that, he was a damned fine writer, which, to me, means he knew how to write a sentence. Joseph Cowley

My favorite is Humbolt's Gift. Nice and extravagant. Augie March is too old-school realistic for my taste. A good short read is Seize the Day, though the main character is rather pathetic. Joseph Cowley

I, too, am a Trollope fan. I especially enjoyed the Palliser novels. I accidentally started with The Eustace Diamonds and was hooked. No need to read them in order if you don't mind going back and forth in time, with some characters major in some of the novels, and minor in others. Reading Trollope is like eating peanuts; one doesn't know when to stop, until the whole of the canon is empty. Joseph Cowley

I read Green Mansions when I was a teenager, and have not read it since, so cannot vouch for it now. But, a hopeless romantic, I fell in love with Rima, and have never let go of her. And, boy, does he know how to create the jungle scene. I read The Purple Land after that, but was disappointed. W.H. (William Henry) is both a naturalist (primarily) and a writer. Green Manions is his one great novel.

The True Believer is the only book by Hoffer that I have read, but it is absolutely the best book on fanaticism that I have ever read. And to think that Hoffer was a self-taught man, a voracious reader, and wrote his books in the spare time he had left over after working as a migrant laborer in the fields of California, and eventually as a stevedore, I understand. In view of all the terriorists who are threats today, Hoffer is must reading.

I'm one of the readers who does not think Disgrace is his best novel. For me, Waiting for the Barbarians is his masterpiece. It is a novel I enjoyed tremendously.

In my opinion (and I should know, I've been there), Under the Volcano is undoubtedly the greatest novel about an alcholic ever written. I've tried some of his other works, but they don't measure up. Volcano is his masterpiece; and how many masterpieces does an author have to write?