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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

One Trick Ponies/One Hit Wonders

Our Lady of The Two Towers

15:27 / 02.10.03

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some manage to make a big splash and then they slink away into obscurity. There are authors that have one 'big' book, in the past decade or so it's probably by dint of that book being turned into a film, then they struggle to achieve that level of success again. So, let's name some people that are primarily successful for one book and that book. Then other people who've read other titles can weigh in about what they thought of those other books, and whether they think the author has suffered unjustly or deservedly languishes in one hit wonder limbo.

So, to start:

1) Irvine Welsh. Trainspotting

2) Alex Garland. The Beach

3) Brett Easton Ellis. American Psycho

17:00 / 02.10.03

Actually, I know of two other films based on other Bret Easton Ellis books -- Less Than Zero and Rules of Attraction -- so I don't think he qualifies.

The Return Of Rothkoid

04:46 / 03.10.03

Resists urge to be a twat and post about A Confederacy Of Dunces.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

05:46 / 03.10.03

Yes, but if BEE died tomorrow the news reports would probably say "Brett Easton Ellis, who courted controversy like some huge hairy mammal with his book 'American Psycho' died yesterday in a vat of strawberry blamanche" whereas if Charlotte bronte came back from the dead, THEN died again, the news report would probably be "Reincarnated Victorian novelist Charlotte Bronte, famous author of such books as Jane Eyre, the godawful Villette and The Professor, died today, having killed herself when she heard Brett Easton Ellis had drowned", which was rather my point.

14:21 / 03.10.03

Heh - using the same "movie made from" test as above, there was a film done about five years ago based on Toole's early novel, The Neon Bible. But the film, like the book, is obscure - not a hit by a good stretch.

I'm not so sure about BEE, but I'm also not really a good representative for mass culture. I keep getting him confused with Jay McInerney -- they both seemed to ride the same wave in the mid 80s.

14:46 / 03.10.03

Poor Alex Garland. I loved The Beach. And The Tesseract sucked so badly...

...Irvine Welsh has pulled a bit of a Douglas Coupland and managed to resurrect himself partly from the ashes of his earlier style. Glue and Porno were pretty good, and almost forgives his godawful Filth. That has to be one of the worst things I've ever read...

More:

J.P Donleavy - The Ginger Man; He wrote it in the 50s, and has continued on writing for the next five decades, but everything else has been swiftly forgotten... I love his stuff, but this is all he'll ever be known for. It was #99 on the 'Top100 novels of the 20th century list', which really suits him)

Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange; Again, I love his books, especially the Enderby series, but no one will ever know him for anything but this....and for his literary criticism...

Of course, Joseph Heller - Catch 22. I've never gotten around to reading anything else by him, but this would be a hard act to follow in anyones case...

...I was thinking of starting a thread in Music about this same idea. Bands that have a great first album and then go swiftly downhill...

17:24 / 03.10.03

Loved BEE's Glamorama ... I don't think he's a one hit wonder.

Whisky Priestess

18:58 / 03.10.03

I resent the implication that BEE's other books aren't worth reading; however, let's not forget Zadie Smith with White Teeth

(NB Joseph Heller's God Knows is also excellent)

14:36 / 04.10.03

Well, let's be fair; Zadie Smith is still at the beginning of her career. White Teeth, like Less Than Zero, is a first novel (albeit an exceptionally acclaimed and honored one): she may still have an American Psycho in her.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

10:14 / 07.10.03

just to clarify, I wasn't actually using films as a measure of success, just that these days successful authors these days tend to have a film made of their books. Although there's a film of it now, Louis De Bernieres was quite well known for a while previous on the strength of captain Corelli's Mandolin, is anything else he's written any good?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:53 / 11.10.03

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked The Tesseract? (Well, apart from those quoted on the book's cover, but they seem somewhat elusive.) It was- dare I say it- a better-written book, though a less fun one, than The Beach.

Do four-volume epics count? Cos, no matter how much I love Dan Simmons' Hyperion series, everything else I've read by him has been absolute shit.

19:26 / 13.10.03

I dunno, mao. Simmons' Carrion Comfort struck me as being rather good. A nice dark conceptualisation of telepaths as amoral mental vampires kind of thing. Not as good as Hyperion but impressive nonetheless.

02:49 / 14.10.03

What about Donna Tartt, will she ever be know for anything other than "The Secret History"?

Thinking about one trick ponies, will Chuck Palahniuk ever write a different book?