I need to catch up on some of these…
via GQ.com
Anyone who’s been handed a high school diploma can tick off the classic novels from the twentieth century: The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms, The Grapes of Wrath. But cross into this millennium and things are suddenly murkier, Kindle-ier, less classed up with age. Then again, it’s been an affirming thirteen years, enough time to breed a whole new body of post-2000 lit we’re happy to call the new classics—and we’re not afraid to name names. We spent months chiseling down a list* of not just our favorite books from the 2000s but also the works of fiction that we most readily recommend to our fathers, brothers, and non-blood-related bros. Then we asked a bunch of those authors to pick an overlooked book—stories, poetry, memoir—from that same period of time. Dig in quick: This is your chance to right some wrongs and hit the new musts you missed the first time around.
*Numbered, but not ranked
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1
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The Corrections | |
| JONATHAN FRANZEN (2001) | |||
BECAUSE: Let’s be real, he wrote two of the very best books (Freedom‘s the other) of the millennium—or, if you’re guzzling haterade, at least the two best books on, among other things, family, anti-anxiety drugs, marriage, fate, songbirds, and Minnesota.
AUTHOR’S PICK: “Ms. Hempel Chronicles (2008), by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, is a deftly constructed novel masquerading as a collection of linked stories; you don’t even realize it’s a love story until you read the last chapter. Its heroine, Ms. Hempel, is a young private-school teacher whose troubles include haziness about the distinction between student and teacher. Chapter by chapter, as you watch her interact with her pupils, you realize that she’s as lost and confused as they are, and the result is an extraordinary sympathy for all concerned. Bynum seems incapable of writing a sentence that doesn’t have something fresh or funny or true going on in it. She gets you laughing and then she whacks you in the heart.
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2
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The Human Stain | |
| PHILIP ROTH (2000) | |||
BECAUSE: he’s written eight pretty great novels since the turn, but only one masterpiece. Beginning in the summer “that Bill Clinton’s secret emerged,” it’s the best book on sex, scandal (Roth coined the famous phrase “ecstasy of sanctimony”), and political correctness in the Lewinsky Moment.
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3
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The Road | |
| CORMAC MCCARTHY (2006) | |||
BECAUSE: While plugging this book is sorta like plugging a weekend getaway to Pittsburgh in February, it’s irresponsible not to, for the sheer tactful feat of turning a post-apocalyptic skin-crawler into both a critical stick of dynamite (the Pulitzer Prize) and a commercial windfall (Oprah’s Book Club). McCarthy, who rarely lifts a fingernail to promote his work, is better than hermetic: Doesn’t care about the fame or money but isn’t such a nutbag that he frantically hides from it. He’s operating in the new millennium as actively as the younger generation, this prime-time gunner, now 79, who so clearly has still got it. Notice, on the other hand, the absence of those other stalwarts of the 1960s—1990s: Updike, DeLillo, Morrison, Pynchon, Ford, et al
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE LIST
You might like the Saunders. He’s got a sense of humor.
Denis Johnson is gritty. Kind of a 21st century Hemingway.
The Franzen is pretty good. Zadie Smith, too. Cormac McCarthy is a pretentious fop, to my mind.
Bolano is great in his way.
Austerlitz is the highest achievement on their list. I’d start, however, with some of the short stories in the volume by Sebard called “The Emmigrants,” and if you like that, then go with Austerlitz. It’s like going from trading stocks to trading options.
Thanks, good reco’s.
1. Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell
2. Fermat’s Enigma by John Lynch
3. The Riemann Hypothesis by Karl Sabbagh
4. The Lord’s of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed
5. Car Guys vs Bean Counters by Bob Lutz
6. Too Big To Fail by Andrew Sorkin
I’d say this list is a must have for where we are now, going forward
This is list of literary works, Cain. Apples and Oranges….
I don’t have time to read anything else though…
Awesome
Oh and Philip Roth–well, he’s too old for the list, seems to me. Different generation. If you include him, then why not Saul Bellow, Delillo or a hundred other authors?
Nice!
Yeah Cormac McCarthy fan here, despite it’s somewhat foofy name I think his book “All The Pretty Horses”, is a fantastic guy book. Horses, the desert, mountains, a hot chic, pissed off dad – oops, gun fights, a jail fight scene, and plenty of death. Rock on. Of course, his other book, Cities of the Plain, also a good guy book in another way – less romantic and more about obsession killing you but still has some great scenes. Blood Meridian is awesome but not for the faint of heart and one should schedule PTSD counseling and medication immediately after finishing the book – unless you find yourself cheering against civilization and for the “bad guys” 🙂
Blood Meridian is incredible…one of the best novels I have ever read.
#1 book—-Madame Whip’s Complete Guide To Advanced Fisting. I can’t believe it’s not on anyone’s list!
I’d add in the Tim Ferriss – 4 Hr Body and 4 Hr Chef, more than just diets and cooking. I read about 40 books a year and these have been my favorite out of any other genre.