"Novels" since 2000
I must reiterate the utterly provincial and incomplete nature of this list. It is meant to provoke.
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 Gardam (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
John 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)
Alice McDermott
The Ninth Hour (2017) … 99
After This (2006) … 92
Someone (2013) … 90
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.
