Looking for books with memorable quirky characters.

[TNDemo]

What's your recommendation?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Try Carl Hiaasen.

Especially one which contains Skink, the former governor of Florida turned Everglades dwelling hermit/eco-warrior.

[Dr. Strange]

3. Abby Normal from "You Suck."

So they loaded him into the ambulance, and just as they were shutting the doors, he reached out his hand, like he was a drowning man reaching for the last spark of his mortality before the inky waves of death swept him away--so I flashed my boobs for him, just a quick lift of my bra and top at the same time, because I don't think we do enough to help the homeless, and I wanted him to die a happy man. And besides, they're small and I don't get that many requests.

[TNDemo]

14. That is hysterical.

I'll have to look that one up.

[TNDemo]

15. Thanks.

I'll look for it.

[Richardo]

2. Catch-22

That describes every character.

[TNDemo]

16. Read that one.

Great book.

[kiva]

4. Jasper Fford's Thursday Next series.

Funny and quirky. Here's a link to the author's website, gives you an idea of his writing:

http://www.jasperfforde.com/index2.html

[TNDemo]

18. Looks interesting.

Which one do you recommend first?

[kiva]

48. I'm a fan of his Thursday Next series, and the first book

is The Eyre Affair (yes, Jane Eyre), and it's a good idea to read them in order - it's easier to follow the characters. He also has a Nursery mystery series that I didn't like as well, but obviously a matter of different tastes. There are currently 4 Thursday Next books, with another one on the way. I hope you enjoy them.

[arcadian]

5. Turgenev's 'Fathers & Sons'

That Yevgeny Vasil'evich Bazarov! :rofl:

[BurtWorm]

13. What a wacky book!

:crazy:


(I actually love it. Good read!)

[TNDemo]

19. Another one I haven't heard of.

I'll give it a look.

[struggle4progress]

6. phone book. any major city. lots of characters to choose from

[HopeHoops]

7. Going Rogue

You don't get much quirkier than that dumbfuck - and unfortunately, she's also hard to forget.

[TNDemo]

20. Quirky and memorable and highlights the mental midget.

Perfect!

[HopeHoops]

25. BONUS! It is ALSO a work of FICTION!

:hurts:

[velvet]

8. Horse Badorties in The Fan Man

by William Kotzwinkle.

Also, Charles Dickens wrote hundreds of quirky characters.

I'm curious, why do you ask?

[TNDemo]

21. I'll look into this one.

It's a long story as to why I ask...

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. Elmore Leonard's got some quirky ones. nt

[raccoon]

10. Charles Dickens. nt

[kayakjohnny]

11. From Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang"...

George Hayduke



George Washington Hayduke is a fictional character in Edward Abbey's novels The Monkey Wrench Gang and Hayduke Lives! Hayduke is an ex-Green Beret, one-time explosives expert and medical assistant to the Viet Cong, and an American environmentalist hero.
Contents

The character of Hayduke was based on his friend and author, Doug Peacock, a Vietnam vet that Abbey befriended and traveled with in the Southwest United States (See Doug Peacock on Wikipedia). He is most likely named after the Haiduks, rebels in the Ottoman Empire, and one of Eric Hobsbawm's archetypal bandits.

Hayduke is Abbey's codification of the wants, longings, and desires of the average male environmentalist awash in the frustrations of corporate greed and corruption where the voice of the little people remain unheard -- until the little people rise up and take direct action because, as Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang puts it, "somebody has to do it."

One of the most relevant aspect of Hayduke as a symbol -- as an archetype, in fact -- is the fact that for all the property destruction dished out at the hands of Hayduke during his efforts with The Monkey Wrench Gang, despite the explosions, the excavation equipment ruined, the survey stakes pulled up from mile after seemingly endless mile of soon-to-be-destroyed countryside, Hayduke never hurt, maimed, or killed anyone.


George Washington Hayduke's first set of adventures outlined in The Monkey Wrench Gang leave him stranded at the top of a 700-foot (210 m) cliff after a raging storm, surrounded by law enforcement officers in helicopters dropping grenades on his position. Hayduke's body is seen shredded by gunfire as he topples into the maelstrom of the raging canyon waters 700 feet (210 m) below, thus ending the last of the Monkey Wrench Gang's heroic work in America's besieged Southwest.

[TNDemo]

22. Interesting...

and new to me.

[TZ]

12. Any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series

:)

[Heidi]

17. Anything by Haruki Murakami.

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/murakami/site.php

[Captain Hilts]

23. Travels with my aunt. nt

[Spacemom]

24. Cotton by Christopher Wilson

The blurb on the back cover caught my eye, and the first chapter hooked me in. I love it already and I've just barely started it.

http://www.amazon.com/Cotton-Christopher-Wilson/dp/0156030454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263573532&sr=1-1

[MissMillie]

26. A Prayer for Owen Meany

by John Irving

(actually, anything by Irving... he's the king of quirky characters)

[SeattleGirl]

36. That's the same one I was going to suggest.

Great book.

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. Confederacy of Dunces has some pretty quirky characters

and it's a fun read, too!

[EastTennesseeDem]

30. +1

[musette_sf]

49. + 1 more

[BreweryYardRat]

28. Pretty much anything by Martin Millar.

Ranges from magical realism to outright fantasy.

[Phentex]

29. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter...

I can never forget those characters!

[LeftishBrit]

37. Yes, or any of Carson McCullers' books

[BlueIris]

31. Peter Hoeg's "Smilla's Sense of Snow," Marilynne Robinson's "Housekeeping,"

and Jonathan Lethem's "Gun, With Occasional Music."

[RadiationTherapy]

32. The illuminatus trilogy - robert anton wilson.

[madamesilverspurs]

33. anything by Tom Robbins...

[cemaphonic]

34. The Wasp Factory

Iain Banks

[wickerwoman]

42. Seconded

:evilgrin:

[Orrex]

35. Suttree by Cormac McCarthy

It's chock full of them.

[bif]

38. "A heartbreaking work of staggering genius"

By Dave Eggars. The writer is a nutball--in an enjoyable way.

[Texasgal]

46. I Loved that book!!!

It was hysterical!

[BOSSHOG]

39. Any book by James Lee Burke

His books are chock full of violence and extremely quirky characters. His Dave Robicheaux series is set in and around New Orleans. Happy and sad and weird and broken and evil and quirky characters. Very violent but the man writes like a poet.

[rug]

40. Dupe - quirky keyboard

[rug]

41. The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth

[sarge43]

43. Anything by Jean Shepherd. n/t

[wickerwoman]

44. Anything by Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club, Choke, etc.

[Texasgal]

45. Running with Scissors

Augusten Burroughs!!!

Seriously memorable, seriously quirky characters!

[WCGreen]

47. Elmore Leonard...

Maximum Bob.

Get Shorty.

Be Cool... A Sequel to Get Shorty.

Touch.

[musette_sf]

50. "Geek Love", Katherine Dunn

[NNadir]

51. My personal favorite novel of the 20th century is "Slaughterhouse Five."

The fact that Kurt Vonnegut never won the Nobel Prize for literature says something, not good, for the Prize and makes one feel ambivalent about the demise of the Saab company.

[Xipe Totec]

52. Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita

This novel is an absolute riot in terms of quirky characters.

The Master - the primary prototype for the writer-hero of Bulgakov's novel is the author himself, while Margarita is based on his third wife, Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaia. In Chapter 13 we are introduced to the Master as a man of about 38, which was Bulgakov's age in 1929, when he began the novel.

Woland - the mysterious "foreigner" and "professor" whose visit to Moscow sets the plot (among other things) rolling. His appearance and nationality are unclear. Eventually he accepts Bezdomny's conjecture that he may be German, which would connect him with the Faust theme.

Woland's name itself is a variant of the name of a demon who appears in Goethe's Faust: the knight Voland or Faland. (In German, "Junker Voland kommt." Bulgakov's Russian makes it clear that it is pronounced with a "v" and spelled with a "W" as it would be in German.

Begemot - He is the Grand Cup-Bearer to Satan in sources on magic.

Korovyev - One of Woland's band, Korovyev usually wears a checked jacket, jockey cap, and pince-nez, which costume recalls that of the devil who appears to Ivan Karamazov in Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov.

Yeshua Ha-Notsri - AKA, to us, as Jesus.