Help? Looking for irregular love in literature

[B]Lolita![/B]

any of Henry Miller's stuff would probably fit

The book The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams has a man who is in love with his gardener, even though he is still visited by his dead wife's ghost. She condems him for loving the gardener. That may be used.... I found out about that book through a book club on here actually. It has nothing to do with the western.

Maybe read the book Mysterious Skin too.

Well, for a 'classic,' try almost anything by Thomas Hardy. I'm thinking both [I]Mayor of Casterbridge[/I] and [I]Tess[/I]. But really, he was the best Soap Opera writer of his era, and you won't miss with Far From the Madding Crowd either.

It's really not hard to find literature that touches on the subject, it might even be easier to find shit that doesn't. [I]Light in August[/I], the relationship between Joe Christmas and the woman he murders, for instance, and that's got Classic status and is American.

Or try Barry Hannah's short novel [I]Ray[/I], where the parents of 'Sister' are basically pimping her to the protagonist. In the same vein, Vonnegut's [I]Cat's Cradle[/I].

[I]Choke[/I] is great, but it's more about addiction than relationships. I'd match it more likely with[I] Leaving Las Vegas.[/I]

can't get much more irregular than DeSade's 120 days of Sodom but storywise it's pretty crappy

for modern lit...........crash by jg. ballard

[QUOTE=jmizair;916807]for modern lit...........crash by jg. ballard[/QUOTE]

Super-Cannes is pretty much a relationship book.

Lady Chatterley's Lover...haven't read it, but going by the name that may work
The Awakening - Kate Chopin
Lolita was a good suggestion. Talk about 'irregular love'
Madame Bovary - Flaubert

that's all I got

Half of french litterature is about that subject.
Examples :
Les liaisons dangereuses - Choderlos de Laclos (a seducer uses all the strategies to seduce a virtuous married woman)
L'éducation sentimentale - Flaubert (a guy spends his life loving a woman from afar)

[QUOTE=projcon;916827]Lady Chatterley's Lover...haven't read it, but going by the name that [/QUOTE]

That's the one that sprang to mind for me too.

Also - The End of the Affair, Graham Greene.

Not so much in the vein of affairs and such, more along the lines of seeking the a sense of acceptance maybe, and, well, definitely on the modern lit side of things, but I gotta mention Geek Love just because it's one of my favorites.

Do you have to use American Lit? It just occurred to me that you could go way the hell old school and bring up Oedipus, if that works for you.

Moinsen!

Hey, I am 2kac from Germany. I´m living about 50 km (ohhh fuck- how much is this in miles?!?) from Hamburg. At the moment I visit school again to pass my A-levels.
I´ve read all of mr. palahniuks books and I really really love them! They changed my life!

And...yeah... I need some help.

I´m going to present the german edition of Fight Club in School. So I need a lot of information about the author. Is the stuff you can find on [url]http://www.wikipedia.org[/url] correct?

Would be great to get some answers here.

Ok, question no. 2

Some month ago I found a quite interesting book at amazon.de

It´s about a crazy teenager. His hobbies a mastrubating and taking drugs. Moreover he has a sick fetish, having to do with shit and urine. Has anybody an idea who I´m talking about? It´ll need some moth till rant, even welsh has no interesting books at the moment. I wanna read something pervers and strange, something to think about. Anybody an idea?

THX

2kac

P.S.: I hope my english is understandable, I´m a little bit out of training!
Thanks for your answers!!!!

Check out basically any Courtly Love book. Most of them deal at least with infidelity, and most time a lot more. I'll check last term's syllabus for various texts.

Maybe check out "Knight in the Panther's Skin" (wikipedia it for some info. It should be there).
For something culturally diverse, check out "1001 Arabian Knights". The thing is massive, so more specifically look into the chapters "The Tale of the Bull and the Ass" (which deals more with relationships) and "The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad". Both can be found at [url]http://mfx.dasburo.com/an/a_index_commented.html[/url] .

You could maybe present Hamlet as a strange love story, if you buy into the whole Oedipus complex in title character (which I personally don't, but poor old Freud though he was dead on).

If you're allowed to use poetry, check some of Petrarch's work. He spent years writing about a woman named Laura who he only met once in church. Once again, it is unrequited love, as many speculate that she was some sort of royalty, but it is still pretty strange. Beware, though, since many believe that Laura did not truly exist and that her character was simply fabricated to allow Petrarch to explore aspects of love and desire and the like.

As long as we're on poetry, why not one of Shakespeare's odd and pissed off Sonnets? Sonnet CXXIX is especially wicked. Lust, lust and more lust!

Good luck!

Rules of Attraction was great I thought, it'd be perfect for your paper. I don't really read romance novels but that one would work well. On the Road has some different romance themes, you almost get the feeling the Neal loves Jack and Jack loves Neal. Naked Lunch was fucking weird, it has everything in there.

[QUOTE=Scottie Vollrath;918877]Rules of Attraction was great I thought, it'd be perfect for your paper. I don't really read romance novels but that one would work well. On the Road has some different romance themes, you almost get the feeling the Neal loves Jack and Jack loves Neal. Naked Lunch was fucking weird, it has everything in there.[/QUOTE]

Oh nice! Rules of Attraction is a great recommendation for this thread. Or if it had to be a shorter piece - there's a couple good stories in The Informers that run the same themes.

Most of Jim Thompson's books also have twisted versions of sentimentality or love.
Check out [B]The grifters[/B] and [B]The killer inside me[/B] for starters.

[i]Madame Bovary[/i] would be good too, if you're using something like [i]Anna Karenina.[/i]

I definitely second [i]Lolita[/i] and anything by Thomas Hardy, especially [i]Tess.[/i] One of the main themes in the latter book is a girl who feels morally and sexually tied (like, they're "spiritually married") to the man who raped and impregnated her as a teenager.

I agree with Lolita and Oedipus aswell as Hamlet. There is a new book by a Japanese writer that might help you, Its called Pierceing by RYU MURIKAMI.

[QUOTE=jane s.;919044][i]Madame Bovary[/i] would be good too, if you're using something like [i]Anna Karenina.[/i]

I definitely second [i]Lolita[/i] and anything by Thomas Hardy, especially [i]Tess.[/i] One of the main themes in the latter book is a girl who feels morally and sexually tied (like, they're "spiritually married") to the man who raped and impregnated her as a teenager.[/QUOTE]

The sort of neo-Romantic authors have plenty of the same in a contemporary setting: I Am Charlotte Simmons is basically Tom Wolfe's Madame Bovary; John Irving specializes in irregular love, I doubt he could write a conventional relationship.

Perhaps HISTOIRE D'O? I haven't red it yet.