Quote from bellman:
Okay, rereading my previous post I realize that was extremely rude of me! You definitely had every right to call me names, and you didn't. I might delete that post and just leave your quote as the record of it.
Three guys that I've read recently and really enjoyed are Chuck Palahniuk, Charles Bukowski, and Hemingway.
I count Catch 22 as one of my favorite novels, but Heller never wrote anything else that compared. I also really enjoyed Eureka Street by Robert McLiam Wilson, but he is also a one hit wonder.
Some more recent reading: I read John Irving until i find you it was decent, but I'll probably never read him again. The novel was mostly about the distorted sexual life of the protagonist, like 700 pages of it! Also read the tender bar by j. r. moerenger (sp) which was solid in it's own right.
I read Wilbur Smith's Warlock seven years ago, and I have to admit that I really enjoyed it, and that yes, you are right it was much better than James Patterson. I read Kiss the Girls back a few years before they made the movie, and even enjoyed that a bit.