Time Magazine has come up with a list of its 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to present. Why 1923? Because that's the year Time started publishing.
As always, these lists are highly subjective, but they're always fun to look at to measure which ones I've read (not as many as I'd have thought) and which ones I've never even heard of.
The readers are rating the books (no additions allowed; choices must be made from the selected universe), and the top five are:
1: To Kill a Mockingbird
2: 1984
3: Watchmen
4: Animal Farm
5: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Okay...of those five I've read three. What the heck is "Watchmen?" Ah, a graphic novel. Not the section I normally browse at the local bookstore. The other one I've not read is the C.S. Lewis book, although with the movie coming out I suspect I'll get intrigued enough to think about it.
So what books are there which shouldn't be, and what aren't that should?
Posted by Linkmeister at October 23, 2005 10:37 AM | TrackBackOh, my. Thanks, Scott. Rolling in the aisles, I am.
Posted by: Linkmeister at October 23, 2005 02:11 PMA quick glance over the list and my first gut reaction was that at least HALF the books don't belong on it. Here are just a few I'd scratch right off: Possession, Ragtime, Falconer, The Sot-weed Factor, The Sportswriter, Tropic of Cancer, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Infinite Jest, The Corrections, Play It As It Lays, Blood Meridian, Revolutionary Road, Red Harvest, Dog Soldiers...
Did I say half? I'll bet I can get 2/3rds of them off. This is a very strange list.
No Joseph Conrad that I saw. John Cheever's worst book! No Maughm, but Richard Ford! Nor Iris Murdoch, but Zandie Smith?
Gone With the Wind is there as a joke, right?
I'm not sure how good I think Robert Stone is---he's very good, but great?---but A Flag for Sunrise is far better than Dog Soldiers.
I'll stop now.
Posted by: Lance Mannion at October 23, 2005 03:34 PMI was wrong, there is an Iris Murdoch novel. Not one of her more well-known ones and not one I've read.
Posted by: Lance Mannion at October 23, 2005 04:30 PMJoseph Conrad was before 1923, I believe.
But where was Watership Down? I loved that book. Probably because it totally captured how I see the world somehow. Though I guess I might be in the minority. But it is required reading in many schools, I believe. I'm pretty sure I first read it in high school.
I was forced to read The Catcher in the Rye in high school, and I strongly disliked it.
Lord of the Flies was a good one though. I was just thinking about that recently:
http://www.watermelonpunch.com/blog/archives/2005/10/lord_of_the_flies.php
The Sheltering Sky... I never read the book, but I remember seeing the movie in the early 1990s, with John Malkovich, and the movie had quite an impact on me.
1984 & Animal Farm are givens... They would have to be daft not to include those.
The other ones on that list that I've read:
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
My teacher, who was also my cousin, of my 4th grade class, had the 4th & 5th grade class get together at the end of the day, and the 5th grade teacher read that book to us, among others. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have read it.
Catch-22
I read this several years ago after having seen several quotes from Joseph Heller that I thought were very clever. I'd say it's a really good book, though not one my favourites.
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Gatsby
I know I read these in school, but I barely remember them.
The Lord of the Rings
One of my favourites from when I was a kid.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Good story... but frankly I didn't actually enjoy the experience of reading it. I think I had expectations or something, and was let down. heh.
Chloe,
You're right. I was thinking of the dates, I was thinking the whole 20th Century. Conrad published his final novel in 1923. The Rover. I wouldn't rank it as one of the best 100 published since then. But it's better than The Sportswriter!
Posted by: Lance Mannion at October 23, 2005 06:49 PMI've never read The Rover, actually.
But I bet I would think Heart of Darkness is better than half the books on that list, at least.
And a coincidence - John Malkovich was also in a Heart of Darkness movie. It was a made-for-cable movie, but it stuck close to the book... though much of the story wasn't included.
Posted by: Chloe at October 23, 2005 09:24 PMI don't know...I tend not to read those kinds of lists because they make me want to throw things when. I'd only quibble with a few inclusions (DFW? Has anyone actually finished Infinite Jest? And as much as I like Franzen, The Corrections?
Wither J.M. Coetzee? Anything? Saramago? Graham Swift?
Posted by: Scott at October 24, 2005 03:25 AMLike Lance, I think a sizeable portion of this list could be cut without doing noticeable damage to the quality of the list. Off the top of my head, get rid of: The Crying of Lot 49, Blood Meridian, Pale Fire, A Dance To The Music Of Time, Falconer, Snow Crash, Sot-Weed, The Sportswriter, ESPECIALLY get rid of Gone With The Wind, A Handful of Dust, and the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
I agree with Chloe that Watership Down should have been here.
Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Catch-22, and On The Road are my favorites from this list.
Posted by: Curmudgeon at October 24, 2005 03:28 PMHrm. Judging from the reaction here, I shouldn't feel too badly about not having read more than half (if that).
Posted by: Linkmeister at October 24, 2005 03:47 PMI couldn't get through The Sportswriter, and don't know why the hell it's on the list. Maybe they thought they needed a contemporary novel that's not written by a minority, or something like that. But it drones on and on and sucks. Can I count myself has having read it or not?
Lance Mannion is right about that you could include several novels by one person; the two by Roth are good starts, although I'm sure you could include more. I do like the choice of White Teeth, however, which I enjoyed immeasurably.
Others that I'd include:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem
Book of Illusions, Paul Auster
Posted by: Dave G. at October 25, 2005 06:22 AMMy favorite is Yates' Revolutionary Road, which is probably also one of the less well-known titles on the list.
Things I would have included:
Seymour Epstein's Leah
James Salter's The Hunters
David Goodis' Down There
Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me
I would certainly have left off One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Gone with the Wind, Possession, Red Harvest (a decent book but not anywhere near Hammett's best), Catcher in the Rye, Snow Crash, To Kill a Mockingbird, Watchmen (not even THAT great of a comic in my opinion) and Infinite Jest (I decided it was not worthwhile finishing after noting that I had another 700 pages of bullshit to deal with). I would replace Money with Michael Bracewell's The Crypto-Amnesia Club.
Posted by: burritoboy at October 25, 2005 09:11 AMInvisible Man is my favorite book on the list, and quite possibly my favorite book of all time.
I'm also very glad they included Call it Sleep.
...I think I would dump White Teeth. I loved it, and I'll devour On Beauty, but it wasn't...life-changing.
Same with Wide Sargasso Sea.
Same with Infinite Jest. It's good for intercontinental flights, and much better than A Staggering Work of Pretentious Asshattery, but it's not my favorite book.
I would dump To the Lighthouse. Mrs. Dalloway, though, absolutely.
I would dump The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, because, well, John LeCarre is just not in Virginia Woolf's league.
I would also dump An American Tragedy, because I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns.
I would promote Remains of the Day over Never Let Me Go--and, actually, Artist of the Floating World over either one. Including Never Let Me Go in this list is like including the babe who played Helen in TROY in People's Summer '03 Most Beautiful People List.
Disgrace, by Jim Coetzee.
Oscar & Lucinda and Illywhacker, by Peter Carey.
Time's Arrow, by Martin Amis, because it terrified me.
Aurora Dawn, because Herman Wouk deserves to be on that list somewhere.
Possibly either Family Matters or A Delicate Balance, by Rohinton Mistry.
And something--anything!--by Annie Proulx. Even That Old Ace in the Hole is better than Infinite Jest, for God's sake. Her prose is indescribably beautiful, and I'm pissed that they couldn't at least flog The Shipping News. I nominate Postcards.
Posted by: piny at October 25, 2005 10:37 AMI have a brother-in-law and cousin who are 'writers' in that they have attended all the right schools and spent time at the right workshops. From listening to them, I believe Richard Ford is one of those authors that other writers can safely praise, knowing he is an acquired taste and not likely to become well-known. For them Russell Banks, Jane Smiley or Richard Russo have too much acceptance.
Posted by: Exiled in NJ at October 26, 2005 02:57 AM