Kevin Guilfoile is the author of Cast of Shadows, an unconventional thriller that has just been published by Knopf. Here, Guilfoile names six books that transcend their genres.
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin (Signet, $7). I wonder if anyone but me still reads (and rereads) Levin, since nearly all his novels have been made into popular movies at least once. Nevertheless, his restraint was a revelation to me as a suspense writer, and Rosemary’s Baby is perhaps the best example of it. Levin doesn’t even pass judgment when Satan himself impregnates an innocent woman. He lets the reader supply the horror. Brilliant.
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Bag of Bones by Stephen King (Pocket, $8). King gets bonus creepy points in this 1998 novel for predicting his own near-death-by-van accident. But beyond its ghosts and poltergeists, this is one of the best books about being a writer I’ve ever read. It should be on the shelf of anyone who wants to be a novelist.
Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy (Picador, $15). After The Moviegoer, almost all of Percy’s books were clever riffs on genre. Love in the Ruins is a dystopian sci-fi novel on its face, but it’s also a wicked satire of race, sex, politics, and religion. Much of what was funny in 1971 is somehow even funnier today.
The Kid Stays in the Picture by Robert Evans (New Millennium, $18). The most irresistible Hollywood tell-all ever. Nearly every chapter starts with some variation of, “Nicholson and I were lying on my bed one Friday night, watching the closed-circuit Hagler-Leonard fight…” Many prefer the audio version (or even the excellent documentary film), but if you’ve ever heard Evans speak, you hear his voice in your head anyway. Also contains the best last sentence in the history of books. I won’t give it away.
Getting Even by Woody Allen (Vintage, $9). Allen’s later story collections—Without Feathers and Side Effects—are probably cited more often, but it was while reading Getting Even that I can first remember wanting to be a writer. This is the Gutenberg Bible of high-concept short literary humor.
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