From an early age, Joyce disdained what he saw as the shabby Philistinism of his birthplace, Dublin, rejecting the Catholicism that dominated Irish culture in favor of a literary faith and a rebel's stance. Absolutely convinced of his genius, Joyce left for self-imposed exile in Europe in 1904, and b

Composed, Excessive, Expansive, Formless, Layered, Modernist literature, Moody, Playful, Postmodern fiction, Profane, Religious, Sprawling, Subtle

It is the rare novelist who can elicit a contract for his death, but Salman Rushdie managed to do precisely that with a Postmodern, playful rumination on religion and politics that made Islamic literalists gnash their teeth and ready their Kalashnikovs. Born on the eve of India's declaration of indep

Dense, Epic, Excessive, Expansive, Magical realism, Playful, Political, Post-colonial literature, Postmodern fiction, Profane, Round, Sprawling, Wise assy

Three men stand equally spaced on the rim of a great circle. The man with no name, Angel Eyes, and Tuco all want gold, and they have already killed to get it. Now, as the wind whistles through the tombstones of the surrounding graveyard, they wait to see who will draw first, who will be left standing

Open-ended, Sprawling, Surreal

There are two mutually exclusive opinions regarding jazz musician Ornette Coleman. By some he is considered a visionary genius, representing the "third spur" of the Modernist revolution -- "a shift in approach to melody and rhythm to match Coltrane's skyscraping harmonics and Cecil Taylor's introduct

Deconstructive, Formless, Free/avant-garde, Hard bop/post-bop, Layered, Polychromatic, Sprawling