I don't know about Romeo and Juliet not being as good, I think to an extent the story has had such a big impact on so much romantic fiction since then that a lot of the ideas in Romeo and Juliet almost seem cliched... when in fact they were borrowed from Romeo and Juliet in the first place. Depends upon your perpective.
I was reading 'Shalimar the Clown' by Salman Rushdie but I think I left it in Australia
Oh, RIGHT-TRACK, now I've started reading 'The Wasp Factory'. You were right, 'tis mighty good and quite the oddity.