Literary Frankenstein's Monster

Reading a blog and comments about whether anyone is interested in author interviews over at Farm Lane Books one question that seems a stock of the author interview is 'which authors do you admire' or 'which books influenced you?'

I've yet to be asked this question as I've had some pretty groovy (no apologies for using that word, it gets to the nub of the sentiment) interviews (listed at the end of this post). But it did set me thinking and this is what I've come up with:

I'd like to write a book with the following attributes (influences)

The lyricism and metaphorical creativity of Jeanette Winterson
The linguistic explosions of Don Delilo and Gary Lutz
The socio-political sweep of Michel Houellebecq
The subversively gentle guiding narrative hand of Franz Kafka
The dialogue skills of Hubert Selby Jnr

There, that's a rum bunch for you to try and meld together into a single work!

Still, I gave it a fair crack in my novel "A,B&E" ...Think I went a bit awry on the Kafka gentle steering though. My MC grabs your hand and takes you for a rollercoaster ride. And seeing as there's probably less than a thousand words of dialogue, the Selby Jnr part looks a bit neglected too.

What would be your Frankenstein's opus? Who would it consist of?



Interviews:
Emprise Review
Alternate Read.com
Whispers Of The Muse
Year Zero Writers