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Best books of the 21st century
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:33 AM Author: Chest-beating associate I have only read a few of these books, but it doesn't appear I am missing out. Apparently the best our culture produces now includes a zombie novel and Gone Girl.
http://www.vulture.com/2018/09/a-premature-attempt-at-the-21st-century-literary-canon.html
Now look at this list of the best novels of the 20th century. Compare Gone Girl to Ulysses, The Sound and the Fury, Pale Fire, and Darkness at Noon. It is hard not to conclude that that literary novels are dead and/or our culture is in a precipitous decline.
http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/ |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:35 AM Author: Well-lubricated slate bbw lol Ulyseses sucks sorry (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36824855) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:25 PM Author: Obsidian out-of-control new version university ulysses is the best novel written aside from anna karenina. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36828313) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 5:14 PM Author: Up-to-no-good Beta Garrison Athletic Conference LOL (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36834813) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 5:18 PM Author: Flushed temple famous landscape painting (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36834847) |
Date: September 17th, 2018 11:35 AM Author: Arousing azure station immigrant lmao the first thing that loaded was franzen's face. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36824856) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:36 AM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap Never Let Me Go and The Road are both very, very good lol at the rest, especially this gem: The Sluts, by Dennis Cooper (January 13, 2005) Once upon a time, in the prelude to the plague years, gay male desire invented its most mesmeric and unbearable object: the twink. Blond, white, underweight, and user-friendly, he was a plastic icon of inverted, Aryan masculinity. As AIDS destroyed a population, as the internet quickened and anarchized our pornographies, the twink took off. Dennis Cooper hit this crepuscular intersection of web and death with effortless genius. A series of online rent-boy reviews describe the discovery, torture, and maybe murder of a barely-legal, no-limits hustler named Brad. Call it the twink cri de coeur — all surface, and so, perversely impenetrable. It is a dangerous fantasia, slipping so easily into the mouths and minds of homophobes. But go ahead, let them taste it. They want it as much as anyone. —David Velasco OH what a canonical work of art! |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:39 AM Author: Chest-beating associate I read The Road and I agree it is pretty good. I also bought The Plot Against America, but never got around to reading it all the way through. Reading the synopsis of most of these shows how far we have fallen. Why would any straight male read fiction anymore? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36824890) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:41 AM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap give Ishiguro a shot he's my favorite active author, copped the Nobel a year ago. The Remains of the Day is also excellent. His newest one, The Buried Giant was weird as fuck (like the style and content were just so far removed from his other stuff), but I still enjoyed it |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:44 AM Author: Chest-beating associate Yeah, I have heard good things but never got around to read anything of his. I saw the movie adaptation of Never Let Me Go, but I imagine the novel is much better. I will check one of his books out. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36824912) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:46 AM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap it's good shit, pretty unpretentious for literary fiction, relatively short and quick reads and yes, the NLMG book was much better than the movie |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 3:10 PM Author: Supple garnet crotch never saw the never let me go movie but the book is excellent (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826445) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 3:11 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap kiera knightley as one of the leads kind of ruins it, never liked her. Carey Mulligan (from Drive and Shame) is solid though, saves it in some regards (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826458) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:42 PM Author: Nudist Pocket Flask Dingle Berry Ishiguro is overrated and never let me go book is poorly written.
The Road is even worse |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:48 AM Author: Arousing azure station immigrant there's some good shit in here. The Outline Trilogy is awesome, 2666 is good but way too fucking long, I enjoyed How Should A Person Be? but it was probably too twee for (xo poa. Platform, Leaving the Atocha Station, pretty good. Oblivion is my favorite DFW work. I loved The Sense of an Ending by Barnes. Capital and Preparation For The Next Life were good. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36824938) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 2:36 PM Author: Chest-beating associate What are your top 2-3 novels of the past 20 years? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826207) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 2:46 PM Author: Arousing azure station immigrant off the top of my head, Netherland Galveston Elementary Particles those are up there but there's a shit ton i forget and mentioned in that list, The Sense Of An Ending is really fantastic and stuck with me for a long time |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 2:53 PM Author: Chest-beating associate Interesting, I really liked both Galveston and Netherland. We must have similar taste. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826335) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 3:01 PM Author: Arousing azure station immigrant the style in both is impeccable (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826386) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 3:03 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap whoa just looked these up and Galveston is by the True Detective dude, 180 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826399) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 3:06 PM Author: Arousing azure station immigrant he published a couple short stories in the atlantic before that: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/02/before-em-true-detective-em-the-short-stories-of-nic-pizzolatto/283992/
his book of short stories, between here and the yellow sea, is also amazing |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 3:07 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap ty will cop (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826424) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:22 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap just put a hold/transfer on Galveston and the short stories at my library, 180 love libraries. Of course I will buy if they have great re-read value. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826983) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:23 PM Author: Chest-beating associate You can get a used copy for about $4-$5 on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1439166641/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr= |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:25 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap I don't like used cuz they often have markups in them (even if listed as "very good"), but still cheap new anyway. But I like checking out from libraries first if something is available. Even if I do like it, if I feel like I won't ever read it again, there's no point (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36827024) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 6:04 PM Author: Arousing azure station immigrant I'll be surprised if you're not amazed by that book. The prose is so good that it completely transcends the crime genre. It makes a guy like Dennis Lehane look semi-retarded. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36827745) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:19 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap ty again, I know very little about contemporary fiction that's actually worth a damn, so good recs are valuable (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36828282) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:24 PM Author: Chest-beating associate Some more recommendations: Dark Star by Alan Furst Before the Fall by Noah Hawley Los Alamos by Joseph Kanon |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:33 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap whoa another tv guy (Hawley) who made a fucking awesome show (Fargo), who I didn't even know wrote books wtf (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36828347) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:53 PM Author: At-the-ready son of senegal (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36828450) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 10:09 AM Author: Arousing azure station immigrant it's diet mccarthy (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36831698) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 5:47 PM Author: Up-to-no-good Beta Garrison Athletic Conference So are apples (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36835070) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:48 AM Author: Sooty Pisswyrm the only 21st century novel i remember liking was jonathan strange and mr. norrell. it was good, but it is not going to be a classic. xo is too political and i contribute to the problem, but i wonder if libs destroyed contemporary literature. |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 11:56 AM Author: dull talented lay Has most of the British and American stuff I'd expect...McEwan, Ishiguro, Barnes, Hollinghurst, Roth, Franzen, Chabon. Then a bunch of women and minorities I'll never read. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36825004) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 2:39 PM Author: Amethyst Parlour Corn Cake The Plot Against America is SO shitty and it's so pathetic that it keeps getting listed as a Great Book by libs who think it proves Bush/Trump is Hitler. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826236) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 2:42 PM Author: Chest-beating associate Couldn’t make it past 20 pages (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826256) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 2:55 PM Author: dull talented lay yeah the human stain is roth's only major work this century (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826341) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 3:11 PM Author: wonderful telephone menage Some 180 imagery and scenes here It was listed before drumpf |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 3:20 PM Author: Big resort Roth has been forcememed for decades. This has nothing to do with Bush or trump (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826540) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:24 PM Author: Amethyst Parlour Corn Cake But that particular book is forcememed because BUSH IS HITLER and so forth. It's a shitty book. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36827008) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 3:19 PM Author: Big resort This list isn't sps: atonement, line of beauty, never let me go, Goldfinch, in addition to some listed above will stand the test of time (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826520) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:45 PM Author: Nudist Pocket Flask Dingle Berry Goldfinch is a great book (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36828416) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 3:12 PM Author: Arousing azure station immigrant need to read that one (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36833740) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:22 PM Author: rose potus mad cow disease The predominant art-form today is long-form television shows. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36826990) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:23 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap constant internet/smartphone usage fried everyone's brains. But once you get back into reading for long stretches of time, you gain the attention span back and it becomes easier. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36827004) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:26 PM Author: rose potus mad cow disease I read 5-6 books a month but only 4-5 novels a year. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36827028) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:27 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap that's because, in addition to the attention span required by all books, novels require active imagination, which can be more taxing reading philosophy, though, is taxing in a different way |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:50 PM Author: Nudist Pocket Flask Dingle Berry what are the other books if not novels? Nonfiction? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36828438) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 4:55 PM Author: rose potus mad cow disease Yeah, usually classics or business. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36834626) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:31 PM Author: splenetic buff french chef dragon 2666 and The Corrections are worthy competitors - but there are a few issues with comparing these lists.
1) We're drawing from the first 18 years - less than 20% the timeframe
2) It's hard to tell what stands the test of time when time hasn't really past yet.
3) I wonder if how easy people's lives are now have a negative impact on literature. Lots of great 20th century authors were WW1 / WW2 survivors / veterans, lives through great depression, etc. , knew more people who died younger or in some of these wars or to sickness or disease, etc. I wonder what kind of impact that has. |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:32 PM Author: Geriatric twinkling jap re: #3, perfect line from a Robert Frost poem: "How are we to write the Russian novel in America as long as life goes so unterribly?" |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 4:59 PM Author: Chest-beating associate The biggest reason that novels are dying is that we have more compelling entertainment options (long-form TV series, videogames, Internet). Most men would rather watch an HBO show or play video games than read. Over 80% of fiction is read by women and the publishing industry is dominated by women and gay men. This has shaped what is published to the extent that almost no fiction aimed at heterosexual males is available and promoted.
To your point, I would say the majority of literary fiction comes from graduates of MFA programs that have led fairly uninteresting lives. It would be 180 if we got more novels from people with actually interesting experiences (astronaut, Navy SEAL, CIA/FBI agent, pro athlete, ER doctor). But that times has past.
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Date: September 17th, 2018 5:00 PM Author: Chest-beating associate I poasted about #3 a few years ago
http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3000005&mc=3&forum_id=2 |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 5:16 PM Author: Flushed temple famous landscape painting also the whole publishing industry is different now the only people who get book deals anymore are stuffy MFA fags (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36834827) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:33 PM Author: Irradiated State Trust Fund Of course they picked the worst Houellebecq novel. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36828349) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 4:54 PM Author: Coral charismatic locale kitty cat (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36834622) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:39 PM Author: lime multi-colored regret literature is dead.
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:44 PM Author: Chest-beating associate Sadly CR (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36828411) |
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Date: September 17th, 2018 7:51 PM Author: Nudist Pocket Flask Dingle Berry lol no (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36828440) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 5:16 PM Author: idiotic bonkers hall (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36834821) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 12:05 AM Author: Arousing azure station immigrant There's always good literature man (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4079355&forum_id=2#36830231) |
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Date: September 18th, 2018 5:47 PM Author: Up-to-no-good Beta Garrison Athletic Conference "Not since Angela Carter has a writer subverted classic fairy-tale tropes the way Helen Oyeyemi does, to transformative effect. Mr. Fox is perhaps the first brilliant work of romantic metafiction, a novel that tells the story of a few characters over and over again in pitch-perfect iterations that reveal volumes about love and loneliness and violence. Undeniably clever — but not so clever as to obscure the sentiment embedded in Oyeyemi’s shrewd structure — Mr. Fox has the brains and the heart to win over both those who enjoy unraveling how fiction works and those who just seek pure enjoyment. —Maris Kreizman"
Anyone who writes like this is unqualified to judge writing. What utter nonsense.
Also, The Last Samurai isn't a book of the 21st century. It was written and published in the 20th. |