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My vote is:

Michael Chabon- Wonder Boys, Mysteries of Pittsburg. Whenever I read his work I just sit in awe of his command of language and dialogue.

Denis Johnson- Jesus' Son, Resuscitation of a Hanged Man. This guy is the Jack Kerouac of the latter half of the 20th century, with alot more heroin and hallucinogenic drugs. He is also very open in his writing about being a flawed, neurotic, broken man, while at the same time not glorifying it. Beautiful writer.

Sherman Alexie- The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven(later made into the film Smoke Signals). Very creative and original writer in a genre(Native American Pulp?)still in its infancy.

Alex Garner- The Beach. I know its cliche, but he really is an incredible writer.

Jim Carrol- Basketball Diaries. I have always loved his work and I got into him when I was a teenager and going through some hard times myself. Pain and loss is always amplified one hundred fold between the ages of 15 to 21, and Carrol explores that phenomenon in depth and with the firsthand insight of a cold hungry poet.

So who do you think are the greatest authors to come out within the past 25 years or so? You dont have to give detailed explanations nor do you have to list five authors. I just think that it is an interesting topic of discussion.

Don Delillo - granted, he was first published in '71 so that may put him out of the 25 year lead-in, but I suppose I could argue he didn't hit the stage until later than that (not to mention some of GLR's are pre-25 too! ). White Noise drew me to him and Underworld just blew me away. He really got me into postmodernism; it's unbelievable stuff that paints America as true as I've read.

Chuck Palahniuk - While he's disappointed me lately with his most recent efforts, I can't deny how his early stuff affected me. Invisible Monsters, Survivor, and of course Fight Club were simply magical for me and spoke to me on many levels.

Tom Robbins - If you've never read him, go buy Still Life with Woodpecker now.

Craig Clevenger - Still young and fresh to the stage, his debut "The Contortionist's Handbook" is atop my stack of favorite contemporary books. Obviously inspired by Palahniuk's tight, fast-paced, style.

Salman Rushdie - He deserves to be on this list for Midnight's Children alone (26 years ago). After reading that I knew that I could never become a writer, at least not one of Rushdie's caliber. Phenomenal stuff. Also love Fury, Satanic Verses, and Shame.

I could write a couple more, but these are my fav's. I loved Chabon for Mysteries of Pitt and Wonderboys, but didn't dig Kavalier & Clay nor his more recent stuff. Similar sentiments for Garland - loved the Beach, disappointed by The Tesseract and Coma. Gonna have to check out Denis Johnson... sounds like my kinda stuff.

Nice thread.

I almost put Chuck Palahniuk up there, but I dislike his work enough to exclude him. I read Fight Club and then I read Choke, which I both thought were great, but then by the time I read Survivor I had his writing style figured out and realized that he essentially self-plagiarizes all of his characters and plot twist and just rehashes them in a different order and a different setting in every book. After you figure him out his books become as predictable as an episode of Full House, which destroys everything that made him great. I still think that he is a very gifted writer, but I also think that somewhere after he began to experience fame he also began to lower his standards and got very intellectually lazy and unethical.

As far as Chabon goes, I didnt get into Kavalier and Clay either. In fact I think that is one of the few, strike that, the only book I have actually stopped reading after already getting in 500+ pages deep. I couldnt put Wonder Boys down, but I had a hard time picking K&C up.

Most definitely check out Denis Johnson. With your fine taste in literature I am surprised you are not familiar with him already. "Jesus' Son" is the necessary starting point. I am in the middle of another book of his called "Seek". It is a collection of journals and reports from around the world, pretty incredible stuff.

I have to check out Don Delillo. Midnights Children is next on my list after such a strong endorsement.


Someone else has to have an opinion here. And this isnt just about voicing your opinion, its about recommending the works of authors who have had an impact on your life, and that some of us might not be all that familiar with. I remember when we had this thread "Five greatest books ever written", it was kind of pointless because almost everyones list was the same, so no new information was exchanged. If it wasnt for Surfing Dan then "Midnight's Children" and "Razor's Edge" wouldnt be next on my list. My point is that we can really help each other out to discover new things here.

I've heard of Jesus' Son, just didn't think it was my cup but I'll be picking it up tomorrow on my weekly trip to the book store for sure - thanks.

If you haven't read Razor's Edge get on it man... and while you're at it read Of Human Bondage (if you're at all into classical lit). Somerset Maugham is the man.

As for Chucky... I agree and probably won't pick up another book. I stopped after Diary and tend to agree with your (and a lot of public reviewers) take on him. Having said that, the man had a huge influence on a couple years of my life during the Invisible Monsters, Fight Club, Survivor, and Choke era, so for that I'll always owe (and respect) him.

I have read of Human Bondage, it is one of my favorites. I think the scene when the uncle dies and the bumble bee is crashing up against the window is one of the greatest moments in the history of literature. I put it right up there with the ambulance scene in James Baldwin's "Go Tell it On the Mountain".

Chuck also was a big inspiration for me to start writing when I was like 19, so I still do respect his earlier work in the same way that I respect Will Smith for "Parents Just Don't Understand", but I could do without most of his later stuff.

The reason I like these threads is because top 100 lists, such as the one put out by the Modern Library, tend to play politics. I think they voted The Great Gatsby the 2nd greatest English language novel of the 20th century. I read it and I thought it was crap, and most people that I have talked to agree, so it is good to get recommendations from people with whom you share similar taste. So C'mon people!

I also loved Wonder Boys, couldn't get into Cavalier and Klay and didn't try anything else by Chabon.

I don't think of myself as having particularly sophisticated tastes but Wonder Boys did strike me as pretty awesome.

Reminded me of the style in some way, but still totally different: Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri. That was short stories but she has another novel which was...okay.

Snow, Orhan Pamuk, which has been mentioned in these parts recently.

A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry.

In fact, I liked most of these as single works and didn't really enjoy the authors' other novels as much - or didn't get far into them...so maybe they don't fit as well here. But still, excellent books.

GLR, just picked up Angels by Denis Johnson... let ya know what I think next week. Thanks again for the rec.

Oh yeah that was his first novel. I havnt actually read that one but I have been telling myself to do so for many years, so let me if its any good.

"A small masterpiece... prose of amazing power and stylishness."-- Philip Roth

Apparently he liked it.

Top five in the last twenty-five? I would have to go with (in no particular order):

-David Foster Wallace
-Mark Z. Danielewski
-Tom Robbins
-John Irving
-Bret Easton Ellis

Almost had Bret on my list too. Love some of Irvings work too, but too many flops in there for me.

Which Danielewski book would you recommend for a first-timer? House of Leaves or something else?

I just have one to add: Jose Saramago, specifically 'All the Names' loved that book.

quote:

Originally posted by SurfingDan:
Almost had Bret on my list too. Love some of Irvings work too, but too many flops in there for me.

Which Danielewski book would you recommend for a first-timer? House of Leaves or something else?

You know, your point on Irving is well taken, but I think I still have to keep him on the list.

As for Danielewski...he really only has two books out that are easily accessible-House of Leaves and Only Revolutions. The Whalestoe Letters is a longer version of the letters from mother to Johnny Truant in House and Leaves and The Fifty-Year Sword was a small release (I think in the Netherlands) and goes for quite a bit of money online.

House of Leaves and Only Revolutions are so different it probably doesn't matter which you start with. House of Leaves in primarily plot driven, with several twists and turns and hidden meanings that makes for an enjoyable puzzle of a book for those willing to spend some time working on it. Roughly, the plot of the story is that a family moves into a house that turns out to be larger on the inside than the outside and begin to make a movie about it. But remember, keep an eye out for deeper meanings, because while it is centering around an interesting plot there is a lot more that Danielewski wants to get across.

Only Revolutions is very lyrically written (like a long poem) and almost needs to be read outloud to truly appreciate it. It is about two 16 year old lovers who span time. You read eight pages of Hailey and then flip the book and read eight pages of Sam (or vice versa). Eventually they meet in the middle (at their most intimate moment) and pass each other. There are 36 lines per page, 360 words per page and 360 pages in the book. It took him 6 years to write, during which he drove the route Sam and Hailey take across the country.

Anyway, both are amazing works by a new author who wants to really change the way we read. Hope this short bit helps.

Here is his website: http://www.onlyrevolutions.com/

I'll have to throw a vote in for Tom Robbins. Who can't appreciate the wacky factor in his novels?

Some of his work is not quite in the 25 year timeline, yet Milan Kundera does something for me. While probably best known for 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being,' my favorite by him is 'Life is Elsewhere.'

Otherwise:

* Haruki Murakami
* Douglas Coupland
* Jonathan Lethem
* Mark Leyner
* Cees Nooteboom
* Irvine Welsh

And, she is just a good story teller, Kathleen Alcala. Oh, alright, I'll also include Rudolfo Anaya. Clearly, I can't abide by this limitation of 5.

quote:

Originally posted by SurfingDan:
If you haven't read Razor's Edge get on it man... and while you're at it read Of Human Bondage (if you're at all into classical lit). Somerset Maugham is the man.

If I'm reading this right, would "Razor's Edge" be the choice for a first read from Somerset?

Razor's Edge is much more travel related and I'd say "accessible," though Maugham is more a storyteller than most so all of his stuff is accessible.

Having said that, I always suggest Razor's Edge to people first since, but his masterpiece is Of Human Bondage, so if you dig RE, be sure not to miss it.

quote:

Somerset Maugham

Thanks. Put it on order at the library today (after almost getting the AC/DC album of the same title....not that this would be a bad thing....)

I clearly need to grab a set of the Razor's Edge cliff notes. I'm 30+ pages in and sort of wondering where this is going. Maybe he's one of those authors I need to bear with a little longer while he climbs to his cruising altitude. Or, maybe I'll slap myself upside the head when it hits me how obvious it is (that's not obvious now). So far, it's all reminded me of one of those college orientation weeks where everyone is trying to figure out the social strata of who is who, and where is where on the social food chain.

I do LOVE his flair, some of his descriptors of people are just killing me I'm laughing so hard--the lady's battle with age, etc. And, I do like how he begins apologizing for the way the story we are "about" to read is laid out, only to realize a few pages later that we're well into said story.

I read Razor's Edge way back in high school and loved it. I have seen the play and both movies based on the novel. And I will say that either of the movies would be a great aid in understanding the book. Seeing the movie does not ruin the book and reading the book does not ruin the movie. Rare by anyone's standards.

Thanks, bush trekker. I'll have to rent one of those DVDs. I'm not really disliking the book. I've liked what I've read so far, and it's probably just me being slow on the draw as to where it's going.