Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.
This could either be the best or the worst Thanksgiving ever. What do you think of this guest list?
1. David Foster Wallace. The author of Infinite Jest was brilliant, sensitive, depressive, and by all accounts a completely fascinating guy.
2. Flannery O'Connor. Even if she never wrote anything except "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People" I would be in awe of O'Connor's mordant genius.
3. Margaret Atwood. I want to ask her a few questions about The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood has a gimlet eye, and I know she will be a good conversationalist.
4. George Orwell. I'll seat the author of 1984 next to Atwood so they can discuss dystopian literature.
5. Frederick Douglass. I have always admired the writing and the mind of the author of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
6. Abraham Lincoln was not just one of our greatest presidents, he was one of the country's greatest writers. I will seat him next to Douglass, who was one of his advisors.
7. George Eliot, author of my favorite book of all time, Middlemarch. She was a brilliant, witty women, who entertained many of the great minds of her time. Their wives, however, declined to visit Mary Ann Evans (Eliot's real name) due to her relationship with George Lewes. She is welcome at my table.
8. John Irving. The author of The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Own Meany, A Widow for One Year and other novels that I love will be seated next to his favorite author, the next on the list.
9. Charles Dickens. By all accounts he was an entertaining conversationalist, and I'd love to talk to him about Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and other novels I've read and loved.
10. John Steinbeck. The author of The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden might have some insights about the great recession and the current social and political issues.
Looking at my list, I'm thinking the food will get cold while spirited debate rages on. What literary figures would you invite to Thanksgiving dinner?
12 comments:
I'd like to come to that dinner too!
I too want a place at that table!! My list is a lot of modernists, and I think drink would replace food, for good and for bad!
Love your choices, especially Irving and Steinbeck!
Happy Tuesday!
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@bermudaonion-come on over!
@Audra-I was thinking of inviting Harper Lee and Truman Capote, but they aren't speaking. Plus, Truman would drink all the booze and fight with everybody;)
My very favorite would be Nora Roberts, but also would like JK Rowlings, Stephen King, Jane Austen and Tolkien.
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@Anne-your dinner table crowd looks pretty interesting too!
Doesn't Atwood have a thing about the term dystopian? I'd love to listen in on that discussion!
@GF Book Mom-Stephn King would be a good guest-and he's still alive!
@softdrink-uh-oh! I'd better research her pet peeves before I have Atwood over for dinner!
I would love to have Wallace at my table too, but I'd be dead scared I'd fall into fanboy-mode and ask him to solve every ill of mankind in conversation, like every interviewer did with him during the last five years of his life.
You know, I'd like to have a meal with him to know what the hell HE wants to talk about for a change.
Sounds like a great lineup for your dinner party! Love Margaret Atwood.
Here's my guest list: http://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2011/11/top-ten-g-guests-for-thanksgiving.html
great selection lisa ,I d like roberto bolano ,james joyce and evelyn waugh ,all the best stu
Great list. I love that you put some thought into who can actually talk. I wonder how many great writers would also be real bores, and just want to talk about themselves. Happy turkey day.
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