Beloved
This article in the NYTimes -- naming Toni Morrison's Beloved as the Best Work of Fiction of the last 25 years -- has totally inspired me to read that magical book again. I remember reading it years ago and loving every word and now I think I'll read it again.
posted by Laura Ingalls Wilder @ 1:37 PM
4 Comments:
I liked Beloved, but the best book in the last 25 years? I didn't love it that much. Having said that, I'm not sure what book I would choose.
Of their top five, I have only read Beloved and the Rabbit series, although I haven't read the last one (Rabbit at Rest). I didn't love the Rabbit books, though.
I don't think I've ever read it. I read The Bluest Eye, and was not inclined to read any more Toni Morrison.
It seems like votes for Philip Roth and Don DeLillo were split among several books. I've read very little DeLillo, but I would put him in the same category as Pynchon -- confusing to the point of annoyance. I like Philip Roth, but I suspect that his best work was more than 25 years ago. Ditto for John Updike. I loved the first two Rabbit books, but they're more than 25 years old. I often wonder, though, if I read them again, how I would react to them. I supsect that they've been copied so much, they would now seem cliched.
I can heartily endorse Independence Day and All the Pretty Horses.
I'm sort of surprised that Paul Auster didn't make the list. Or Pynchon. Or The Corrections.
Or other women, like Annie Proulx, Jane Smiley, Margaret Atwood.
I love every Toni Morisson book I've read. Jazz is one of my favorites too.
Philip Roth is also one of my favorites. Recently, I thought American Pastoral was amazing. Haven't read The Human Stain or Plot Against America yet.
I am limited on this list to Updike and Roth (but neither Human Stain or American Pastoral, both of which I have heard raves about). As for Updike, I loved the Rabbit books, but find it a little silly they are all on this list as the first one was written in the late 1950s! I have not read DeLillo, but I actually liked the Pynchon I have read as bizarre as it was so Bailey's comment doesn't scare me. Also like Bailey, my Morrison is limited to The Bluest Eye. (Mrs. Isaac told me that was not a huge fan of Beloved for what that's worth.) Sadly, my fiction is more often limited to classics (i.e., written by those no longer writing). Perhaps this is not the best blog for modern fiction.
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