NY times puts in their $.02: The Best Work of American Fiction in the past 25 years.
Lots of lists and book talks recently.
I've read Beloved. Yes, I think it's good, but I don't know if it would be #1 for me. However, oddly, I feel out of touch with recent American literature. After 4 years studying Ancient Greek thought, Roman thought, and European philosophy of the past few centuries, and then my obsession with Russian writings into the next 2 years, I don't feel I have a good grasp of recent authors and literature. Anyone have their pick from the last 25 years?
by love.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
book talks
Posted by Kristi at 2:22 PM
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2 comments:
my living writers course this past semester exposed me to a lot of good contemporary fiction. nothing on the New York Times' list, but some very entertaining and/or good stuff in that mix nonetheless. in particular I liked Sam Lipsyte's Home Land, an epistolary novel in the form of updates that Lewis Miner sends to his high school alumni magazine. Miner's "updates" are full of his failure stories, from his deadbeat job at the local cola plant, to his catastrophic relationships with girls and his grotesquely inappropriate ways of dealing with them, to hanging out at the diner with his druggie friend Gary (who cut off his own thumb in order to have a phantom limb). not surprisingly, the alumni mag refuses to publish his submissions--even writes a fake update for him, in keeping with the tone of its cheerful shallow mask of success stories. it's unpleasant and vulgar in parts, but if there's one good reason to read it, it's that it's a novel that doesn't believe in sugarcoating. It's a novel about rejecting, or maybe just being rejected by, the shallow status quo of pretending that everything is all right and succesful and fulfilling. It's sort of confessional. So I guess I'd recommend it with reservations, is what I'd do.
David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, though, I'd definitely recommend that one wholeheartedly. It's a collection of six different stories, all with intricate connections between, spanning a variety of genres and over three centuries. The writing is both beautifully crafted and engaging, the characters have a depth that makes you care about them as individuals, Mitchell's stylistic innovations are really clever (the connections between such disparate stories), and he's not afraid to have a vision and a message in the beauty of his writing. He tackles a lot of serious issues about where postmodernity and consumer culture are taking the human race, and I agree with a lot of what he says in his novel.
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil is also a good one. It's short, easy to read, almost like a children's book, but hilariously absurd and a clever satire of nationalism and politics. And it culminates in a blatant, unashamed deus ex machina in which God Himself reaches down and intervenes in Outer Horner's national crisis. it's a fun book, quick, a good read if you don't have a lot of free time on your hands. I could definitely let you borrow any of these, or perhaps one of the other books from my Living Writers course, next time Dave and I come visit you. just let me know.
I also had to read Beloved, in high school. it was a weird weird book, but studying it (rather than just reading it) helped me understand it and appreciate it better. okay, it's time I went for a run now.
Well, off the list of 25 the only one I read was Beloved and I thought it was pretty good - the structure of it is what made it interesting to me.
I've read a few disappointing contemporary fiction books (Girl with a Pearl Earring for example) but I did enjoy ones like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. If I think of any others I've enjoyed that are modern fiction, I'll let you know. For now. No thoughts. Need caffeine.
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