What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?

[spindrifter]

Early this year, the Book Review's editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years." Following are the results. <snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/fiction-25-years.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
+++++++++++++++++++++

So what would you choose as the best work of American fiction in the past 25 years?

[Broken_Hero]

1. GWB Administration...n/t

:sarcasm:

[Bjorn Against]

31. The post asked for the BEST work of fiction

Everything that administration says may be fiction, but it is certainly not the best fiction.

[ropi]

2. hmm...

didn't see all of them..

but Carole Maso's AVA is beautiful.

[Bjornsdotter]

3. The 9/11 Report n/t

[TomClash]

21. !!!!!

:toast:

[spindrifter]

4. My vote is going to Saddam's WMD

[xray s]

5. 2000 Election

runner up, 2004 Election

[DS1]

6. Snowcrash

:-)

[jdadd]

7. KKK Karls Defense

:rofl:

[Mz Pip]

8. I would pick

"Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier
"Plainsong" by Hauff(sp ?)

I need to try "Underworld" again. I started it but never got into to it past the first and truly amazing first section.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[saltpoint]

9. Reynolds Price's THE TONGUES OF ANGELS plus

John Irving's A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY.

I'd put DeLillo's LIBRA on that list, too, and Andrew Holleran's DANCER FROM THE DANCE, and Joan Didion's DEMOCRACY.

[fknobbit]

10. DeLays reason for not serving in Viet Nam. nt

[rzemanfl]

11. "George W. Bush, the President of the United States of America."

[WCGreen]

12. I read the Human Stain and Plot Against America.....

I don't know...

Oh yea, the Rabbit Books....

They were good as well....


On Edit.....

I would have to say Empire Falls was really good...

As was Irvings Cider House Rules....

[Captain Hilts]

13. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. A. Gurganus

Really amazing.

[NWHarkness]

14. A few favorites

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michaek Chabon

[OneBlueSky]

15. the judges seem to have a distinct Philip Roth bias . . . n/t

.

[pitohui]

17. maybe they like liver EOM

.

[SmokingJacket]

34. Maybe because Roth is the best American writer alive.

Could be?

[pitohui]

36. not while delillo's still breathing

:-)

[pitohui]

16. libra by don delillo

how pleased i was to actually see this wonderful book on the list, my picks are not always in agreement with lit establishment picks -- the other delillo picks are EXCELLENT too!

infinite jest would be my runner-up

roth and updike i can do w.out, i guess i will never be able to stop thinking of liver when i think of roth

[The Wizard]

48. Libra may be fiction

but it has more facts about the Kennedy Assassination than anything else published. Who knew Oswald was so broke he'd deliver his garbage to neighbors in the dark of night because he couldn't afford the refuse collection fees. Or that Oswald had witnessed U2 spy planes taking off and landing before anyone heard of the U2 spy plane. Who remembers Oswald firing shots through a General's window? Delillo did his research and laid out a scenario as believable as the Warren Report, even more believable, as there's no magic bullet theory as propounded by Arlen Specter.
Actually, getting caught with communist pro-Castro literature after a failed assassination attempt (Oswald was dyslexic and supposed to miss) as a pretext for invading Cuba isn't all that unbelievable.

[pitohui]

54. to me it was completely believable

you don't think of delillo as a puzzle guy fitting together the puzzle pieces but he did it so well

and i just loved the atmosphere of oswald's life in new orleans and other places too, he really spins a tale

[Democrats_win]

18. "A Home at the End of the World" by Michael Cunningham

The title is a double entendre associated with a symbolic end of the world and a geographical far off place. The book is universal in that the main characters, Bobby and Johnathan, are trying to figure out life in the face of the many tragedies they face. The book asks the question, what exactly is a family?

Bobby is straight while Jonathan is gay yet they form an unconventional family. The conventional families the book portrays are unhappy while Bobby and Jonathan's family is a family that both of them desperately want. In the end, they find that only they, together can be a family, so they make a home at the end of the world.

[the arkansas liberal]

51. Good -- liked his "The Hours" better, though!

[LisaM]

19. I don't know what the best is, but "The Feast of Love"

by Charles Baxter is good enough that I've read it three times.

Whatever the best is, I'm sure that I haven't read it yet!

[2bfree]

29. That is a great book!

:)

[Goblinmonger]

20. Middlesex

Not even a question. I haven't looked at the list yet.

[LisaM]

23. I thought that book was highly overrated

I didn't care for it.

[spindrifter]

44. I liked most of it--but then, I grew up in Detroit and

know the setting intimately. My grandparents also owned a restaurant not far from the one in the book.

[Bullwinkle925]

57. I thought 'Middlesex' was one of the best stories I've read in a long time.

Character development was superb. Storytelling was magnificent. I felt for this Greek/American family.
Lefty and Desdemona will stay with me for a long time.
Which book (s) would you recommend?

[TomClash]

22. Underworld, Libra

or Confederacy of Dunces

[waldnorm]

24. Some Great Works--Past 25 Years

White Noise--Don Dellilo

The Bone People--Keri Hulme

House of Spirits--Isabel Allende

The Handmaid's Tale--Margaret Atwood

Beloved--Toni Morrison

The Color Purple--Alice Walker

[JitterbugPerfume]

55. yes, I agree

The Handmaids Tale , and The Color Purple


and I would add A Confederacy of Dunces

[Paladin]

25. "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen

n/t

[pitohui]

27. dated now tho

i don't know if any book has ever dated quite that fast

"in the end the corrections came quite slowly" ok i'm not quoting that exactly right but since i read that after the coup and after 9-11 and all the rest -- the corrections didn't come quite slowly did they

[Paladin]

28. Great Writing Is Great Writing

If you're suggesting that either George W. Bush or the Islamo-fascists should have the power to impact my reading preferences, thanks but no thanks......

[pitohui]

32. what i'm suggesting is that it wasn't great writing

the theme of the book was just wrong, it was entertaining, but it was just plain 180 degrees screwed up

a great book gets beyond its time, but "the corrections" died on 9-11, there was no slow steady correction, there was 9-11 and stolen elections and all the rest

i can think of a thousand better books, not that i didn't enjoy it, i did, but when it's a battle between the catastrophists and the gradualists, the gradualists are looking pretty silly this time of century -- even in the area of geology much less literature

:-)


maybe it's living in new orleans, but any good catatrophe story, even an "alas babylon" is more real to me than "the corrections," which in the end is just self-indulgent

the narrative is death, the narrative is not oh well and then everyone pretty much muddled through

for me the best book on that theme of all time would have to be, "we were the mulvaneys" -- maybe because before they muddled through first they had to survive the catastrophe, that's real to me, that is what grips my interest

[Paladin]

35. No Thank You

So, because of 9/11, the only fictional works that count are ones where the characters get well and truly fucked over?

Sorry, but like I said, I'm just not prepared to let this administration and a bunch of religious fanatics have any power to dictate the sort of novels I read. If setting up lists of Gradualists and Catastrophists makes you happy, be my guest...

[pitohui]

37. i let reality be my guide

i remember a friend who described to me his favorite novel, i forget the title, but he described to me this wonderful passage where...a dragon won the battle by farting

excuse me?

that's what "the corrections" is to me

he's just silly and irrelevant, if you enjoy it, carry on

but please don't pretend he is more real than such writers who actually describe reality w. some degree of accuracy

i am glad you have not experienced catastrophe but for most of us "the corrections" is a silly fun tale about getting together for the holidays for dinner and you know what -- this time of century, the world is bigger than that

[Paladin]

39. Whatever My Experiences With Catastrophe Are.....

...they are unknown to you, and will remain so.

It's all subjective, isn't it? One person's claim to "...let reality be my guide" may be viewed as "pretentious wallowing in despair" as another.

I share your enthusiasm for "Libra," however.....

[mitchum]

46. Not just dated, but incredibly hyped and overrated..."The Fear...

of Flying" for our time.
I found it telling that friends of mine who had never read much "real lit" fiction thought it was great. No one but Frantzen's mother is going to be fondly recalling that contrived book ten years from now.

[NewHampshireDem]

26. I agree with two of the honorable mentions ...

Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien are both amazing books. I've read DeLillo, but really didn't get into it either. Maybe I'll dip back in.

[pitohui]

33. libra is WAYYYY better than those other two

where i'm calling from and the things they carried are good reads but libra blasts them out of the water if you ask me

try it again

to me the rhythm of the language and the re-creation of the world as it was is just irresistible

[McCamy Taylor]

30. "Cities of the Red Night " William Burroughs

I can't access the link, because it is in the super secret you must pay for it NYT pages.

William Burroughs was the best writer American produced in the second half of the 20th century (after Faulkner snuffed it). His whole body of work is wonderful, but I would give Cities a slight edge over the rest, just because it seemed to generate and maintain a higer level of "gee whiz!" effect when I read it. Some of his other novels are brilliant in a more episodic way.

"Song of Solomon" Toni Morrison is a very honorable number two. None of her other books are even close to this one. She must have been inspired by something.

[sal paradise]

50. I agree...

Burroughs' 'Cities of the Red Night' amazing.

[terrya]

38. "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham has to be close to the very top.

A brilliant piece of writing.

[MilesColtrane]

40. "Blood Meridian"

Have to think that McCarthy's masterpiece was an inspiration to the writers of "Deadwood", as far as the character's use of language- King James English mixed with the foulest epithets.

This book put me in a kind of trance. The violent soul of America laid bare.
The ending made my skin crawl.

[mitchum]

47. "Blood Meridian" is my choice also...

An astonishing piece of work. I agree with you that the "creators" of Deadwood cribbed liberally from "Blood Meridian"
I also enjoy McCarthy's earlier work- "Child of God", "Outer Dark", "Suttree", etc...
I don't care so much for his imitation Larry McMurty work- "All The Pretty Horses" and the subsequent novels

[JitterbugPerfume]

56. I forgot Blood Meridian

chilling book!

[waldnorm]

41. Ten Best of the Last 25 Years

1. Don Dellilo "White Noise"
2. Toni Morrison "Beloved"
3. Alice Walker "Color Purple"
4. Isabel Allende "The House of the Spirits"
5. Milan Kundera "Unbearable Lightness of Being"
6. Louise Erdrich "Love Medicine"
7. Keri Hulme "The Bone People"
8. Khaled Hosseini "The Kite Runner"
9. Sandra Cisneros "The House on Mango Street"
10. Margaret Atwood "The Handmaid's Tale"

[waldnorm]

42. I Should Read "Best American"

drop Kundera and Hulme (not American) and maybe, Margaret Atwood if Canada's not included.

[waldnorm]

43. I Thought This Sounded Familiar . . .

I already answered this question (above). Sorry.

[Rowdyboy]

45. "A Confederacy of Dunces"was published 26 years ago....its my book

of the century.

I did love Gurganis's "Oldest Living Confederate Widow" though

[JitterbugPerfume]

49. I agree

A Confederacy of Dunces:hi:

[Diego360]

52. Cloudsplitter by Russel Banks

Banks' take on John Brown really took hold of me and gave me a good shake. Haunting, sorrowful, shocking and distinctly American.

[Fire Walk With Me]

53. Catch 22, Gravity's Rainbow, Omensetter's Luck, Confederacy of Dunces,

And this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Stars-Pocket-Like-Grains-Sand/dp/0819567140