Newsletter: August 2022
I was at dinner the other night when I was asked what novelists attended the recent Sun Valley Writer’s Conference. This question triggered a “restrained rant” of sorts about the state of the current novel or anything pretending to be fiction. As I have alluded to on my site, too many novels these days are barely disguised memoirs. While we may be in a golden age of memoirs, we are also deeply infected by narcissistic tendencies in everything we do. The memoir itself does not bother me. I wrote one myself. It is the presumption that what you call a novel is not one at all. It is an insult to the real novelists of our time and to the act of imagination and the courage it requires. From my own perspective and efforts, memoirs (not to be too pat) are a piece of cake compared to the lonely rigors of a serious novel. Now … I am talking about novels that try to make the cut as literature, not the assembly line entertainments from the likes of James Patterson. The line can be grey but not nearly as much as the defenders of fiction “light” might insist.
The second half of the rant began with the dearth of novelists of late at the Conference. Fifteen years ago, they dominated, and I feel the loss. This year, the poets reigned supreme (a good thing) and you could not turnaround without running into a high end pundit. Anthony Doerr carried the flame for the serious, imaginative, and original novelist. I am sorry, but the other well-received novelist, Lauren Groff, has a long way to go until she sits comfortably on the other side of the above drawn line – Obama endorsements aside. The rant picked up speed as I complained of the tonal homogeneity of so many “serious” novels today. They are either (take your pick): angry, pedantic, agenda driven, overwritten or cloyingly confessional. I feel they are being written too often for that sweet spot between Oprah Winfrey and the monthly (“I didn’t finish the book, but…”) book club. The patient guests at dinner let me finish then suggested I put together a list of reasonably current novels that rise above my generalized and strident criticisms.
Just such a list (“Novels” since 2000) is on my site. My set of criteria include but are not limited to readings that are not overt book club bait, not confessional, not a latent memoir, and not pedantic or “agenda” driven. They are written in a disciplined, word by word, style with a purpose or theme that is revealed most clearly AFTER you finish the book. The cutoff date for “contemporary” is 2000. The list is in no order of preference and may ignite as much, if not more, disagreement than inspiration. I have read each one and next to each is the date published and my nerdy score (top score of 100) I give a book after reading it … a process I began in 2007. My self-screening routine usually ensures a book gets higher than 80 since if it is drifting well below that I stop reading it. I am open to comments and contributions. There is no way it is even close to comprehensive. There is no way it is not a product of a particular set of biases (that should be apparent!). Given this, let’s hope that it will be a continuous work in progress. The following is a partial listing of the first group of writers where I have read at least three of their novels since 2000.
Group One … three or more novels by an author read and graded since 2000
Michael Ondaatje
Warlight (2018) … 91
The Cat’s Table (2011) … 91
Anil’s Ghost (2000) …90
Ian McEwan
Atonement (2000) … 98
On Chesil Beach (2007) … 93
Sweet Tooth (2012) … 92
The Children’s Act (2014) … 89
Kate Atkinson
Life After Life (2013) … 95
God in Ruins (2015) … 94
Case Histories (2004) … 89
Jane Gardham (a trilogy)
Old Filth (2004) … 98
The Man and the Wooden Hat (2009) … 92
Last Friends (2013) … 90
Emily St John Mandel
Stations Eleven (2014) … 96
The Glass Hotel (2020) … 88
Sea of Tranquility (2022) …91
Jon Williams (date rescued from the wilderness by NYRB)
Stoner (2006) … 99
Butchers Crossing (2007) … 95
Augustus (2014) … 100 (epistolary historical fiction)
Colson Whitehead
Underground Railroad (2016) … 94
Sag Harbor (2009) … 87 (half memoir)
Harlem Shuffle (2021) … 93 (audible)
Hilary Mantel
Wolf’s Hall (2009) … 98
Bringing Up the Bodies … 97
A Change of Climate … 86
Colm Toibin
The Master (2004) … 90
Brooklyn (2009) … 94
The Magician (2021) … 91
Amitov Ghosh
Sea of Poppies (2008) … 92
The Glass Palace (2000) … 96
The Hungry Tide (2004) … 89
John le Carre (just read THE Smiley trilogy before you die)
Silverview (2021) … 89
The Constant Gardener (2001) … 88
Legacy of Spies (2017) … 91
Group two: one or two novels by an author read and graded since 2000
Julian Barnes
Sense of an Ending (2011) … 93
Mohsin Hamid
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013) 98
Exit West (2017) … 94
Moth Smoke (2000) … 92
Richard Ford
Canada (2012) … 92
Let Me Be Frank With You (2014) … 88
Anthony Mara
Constellation of Vital Phenomena (2013) … 98
Cormac McCarthy
The Road (2006) … 100
No Country for Old Men (2005) … 92
Tobias Wolff
Old School (2003) … 95
Our Story Begins … 97 (short stories)
Richard Yates
Revolutionary Road (reissued 2008) … 97
Juno Diaz
The Beautiful & Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao (2007) … 92
Claire Keegan
Foster (2010 … 100
Small Things Like These … 100
Leonardo Sciascia
The Day of the Owl (reissue by NYRB in 2003) … 95
To Each His Own (reissue by NYRB in 2000) … 95
Patrick deWitt
Sisters Brothers (2011) … 91
French Exit (2018) … 94
Anthony Doerr
All the Light You Cannot See (2011) … 97
Cloud Cuckoo Land (2021) … 98
Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go (2005) … 95
Klara and the Sun (2021) … 100
Elizabeth Strout
Olive, Again (2019) … 92
Oh, Henry! (2021) … 91
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet (2019) … 96
I Am, I Am (2017) … 93 (sneaking this memoir in)
Marilyn Robinson
Gilead (2004) … 97
Richard Powers
The Overstory (2018) … 99
William Trevor
Death in Summer (2000) … 91
The Story of Lucy Gault (2003) … 96
Niall Harrison
This Is Happiness (2020) … 95
Clearly this is a list one might expect from a white male ex-lit teacher who is staring at his 67th birthday. It is also clear that I have a bias toward writers from Britain and Ireland. Just as a steady diet of Shakespeare has made actors from those two worlds so effective at their craft, I believe that a similar rigor informs the quality of their writers. This may be nothing more than decades of familiarity at many levels. Even today, as I put together a reading list for a forthcoming trip, the books are mostly British or Irish.
