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psipook
Forum Admin
5 Posts |
 Posted - 10/11/2006 : 09:38:36
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Well, it seems that our literary journalists have too much time on their hands and have been compiling utterly meaningless lists of the best novels. The New York Times polled about 200 writers and ‘literary sages’ and came back with the answer that the best American (does that include Canadian or Mexican?) novel of the last 25 years was Beloved by Toni Morrison (What? Who?). The Observer thought this was a terribly wizard wheeze and asked 150 (smaller country) of its own sages (including at least one American who had probably been polled by the NYT but not me) the same question about British and Commonwealth novels. The winner was Disgrace by JM Coetzee, which I have to confess to not having read.
Fascinating. So now I have to do the same thing. Yes, I know: what is the point, what does this achieve, aren’t lists essentially meaningless, how can you compare writers of different styles, intents and themes, and don’t we all have better things to be doing with our time, like writing for instance?
Who cares?
My poll is: what is the best work of fiction in any language since 1945? Why 1945? The answer to that is obvious, surely — get on with answering the question.
My own vote, without further ado, goes to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, which by a meaningless coincidence was first published the year I was born.
Runners up have to be:
The Good Soldier Svejk, Jaroslav Hasek
Crash, JG Ballard
Wind Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Marcovaldo, Italo Calvino
1984, George Orwell
… and all the ones I have forgotten to mention
Now, what about you? In your entirely subjective opinion, what is the best work of fiction in any language since 1945?
Your responses will go up here, so make sure your literary taste is well polished.
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psipook
Forum Admin
5 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 09:43:53
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AN-FI said,
October 10, 2006 @ 11:41 pm · Edit
My vote for best work of fiction is….
100 years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquéz
Runners up are:
Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco
Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
The Magus, John Fowles
Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges
Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
Hopscotch, Julio Cortazar
The Spy Who Came in From The Cold, John Le Carre
Palace Walk, Naguib Mahfouz
This is submitted by a Canadian, so two Canadian books are there. I studied Latin American literature so there are three Latin American books there (although one of them, labyrinths, is really an anthology). Um, no Toni Morison or, for that matter, any U.S. author. Three Brits, One Italian, one Czech and one Egyptian round up my top eleven (I just couldn’t narrow it down any further….).
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psipook
Forum Admin
5 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 09:44:48
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The Grand Poopaa said,
October 11, 2006 @ 12:11 am · Edit
Trousers,
Good choice on 100 Years. Haven’t read that in ages but have very fond memories. A bit depressing as I remember.
OK, here is my list. I am American (god bless me).
City of Glass, David Auster
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami (close second to Wind Up)
Neuromancer, William Gibson
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera
The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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psipook
Forum Admin
5 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 09:46:07
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psipook said,
October 11, 2006 @ 5:00 pm · Edit
Great. 100 Years is winning so far with two whole votes. No clear vote from the Grand Poopaa, but a good list — with the possible exception of the Auster novel, a writer who has always struck me as too solipsistic to be real. Especially neat inclusion of Proulx and Gibson. The Shipping News is poetry.
Hope to move this discussion to a forum I am setting up this week.
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nagaijin
Starting Member
Japan
1 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 10:06:45
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| Gosh, it's a bit late, but before nodding off, I'd have to say the best work of English language fiction since Hastings has got to be the Labour Party Manifesto of 1997. I might revise that opinion tomorrow, unless of course I don't. byeeee. |
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Laura-the-Explora
Starting Member
1 Posts |
Posted - 11/04/2006 : 08:11:11
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Well, I didn't study literature and haven't taken any creative writing lessons, but I do like to read when I'm not hiking something.
I've got to add some love and passion to your lists. Don't miss reading:
Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate), Laura Esquivel (Mexicana)
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger (American)
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (Afghan American)
Angel I also really enjoyed Fifth Business, Roberston Davies (Canadian)
These are the books that come to mind!
Ciao!
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That fiction poll
