The Loose Canon

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Marcel Proust: Remembrance of Things Past (1913 - 1927). The Everest of novels, offering a similarly spectacular view of nature -- in this case, human nature. E.M. Forster: Howard's End (1910). Even better than the movie, a story of how modern society muscled out the traditional ways of English culture.

Rainer Maria Rilke: Duino Elegies (1923). The greatest spiritual poet of the century shows the beauty and the terror of wrestling with all that's unfathomable in life. Tu Fu: Poems (8th century). Somber and reflective, Tu Fu lived in a turbulent era of Chinese history and wrote political poetry of a beauty and density rarely equaled anywhere.

Antonio Gramsci: Prison Notebooks (1926 - 1937). An Italian Marxist martyr whose keen thinking on the role of mass media, civil society, and power politics in society is still important in the postcommunist world. Subcomandante Marcos: Shadows of Tender Fury (1995). Communiqu*s from the masked rebel who speaks for the insurgent Mexican peasants of Chiapas: 'We are nothing if we walk alone; we are everything when we walk together in step with other dignified feet.'

Marx Brothers & Leo McCarey: Duck Soup (1933). Amidst all the hilarious mayhem, the brothers Marx offer trenchant commentary on the all-out idiocy of war. Stanley Kubrick: Dr. Strangelove (1964). Not only the best (and probably only) comedy about nuclear war, but also one of the funniest satires on any subject.

Robert Johnson: Complete Recordings (1936 - 37). Haunting distillations of hard living from the most legendary blues singer of them all. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: The Message (1982). Stark scenes of ghetto life comin' at ya in a riveting rhythmic recitation -- rap music at the peak of its powers.

Pablo Neruda: Canto General (1938 - 1950). In this book-length epic, the towering Chilean leftist poet explores the geography, history, and troubled fate of Latin America from a life-affirming point of view. Clarice Lispector: The Hour of the Star (1977). In exquisitely simple prose, this Brazilian Jewish novelist turns the heartbreakingly ordinary life of a forgettable young girl of the slums into heroic poetry.

Duke Ellington: In a Mellotone (1940). In the absence of a royal family, America created an aristocracy of jazz -- in which the Duke always holds court. John Coltrane: A Love Supreme (1964). The giant of free jazz saw playing the saxophone as a form of prayer.

Billie Holiday: Lady in Autumn (1940s - 1950s). Pain crackles through her voice, but there's also a deep passion and poignance that may be unsurpassed in recording history. Amalia Rodrigues: Monitor Presents . (1960). Fado is Portugal's blues -- sad and stirring sounds rising out of slums and shanties -- and Rodrigues' powerful voice makes her the master of the form.

Hank Williams: 40 Greatest Hits (1940s - 1950s). Although he's worshipped as the patron saint of Nashville, Hank goes further than anyone in country music at evoking both the sorrow and joy of being alive. Johnny Cash: The Sun Years (1950s). A sharecropper's son with his hand on the pulse of American music -- call it country, rock, or folk, it's all Johnny Cash.

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