So back to Entertainment Weekly’s list of “New Classics” — the movies, books, music and other cultural flim-flam that might (or might not) outlast our own brief sojourn here on Earth.
And while I thought the music list was palatable — strange, but palatable — I can say no such nice things about the Top 100 Books.
Look, I love Jon Stewart as well as the next girl — all that snarky political humour, it’s delish. But his book — funny though it was — as one of the 100 best of the last 25 years? Please. Oh, the list isn’t measuring the best? I don’t care what it’s measuring. The book doesn’t belong on this list. You want political humour? What about Thank You For Not Smoking? Or Primary Colors?
And The Road as number one?! I know Oprah has some cultural pull but just because she really, really liked it doesn’t mean you have to like it that much too. A book that Ian Rankin has called “harrowing and pedestrian at the same time” is better than Sandman? Or The Adventures of Kalvelier and Clay? Better than Beloved? Beloved which is pretty much the Great American Novel of the late twentieth century? Really? And The Joy Luck Club ahead of Possession? That’s just wrong.
The problem with lists like this is that they are all so subjective. I know people loved Cold Mountain and it was good. Not number 9 good though (ruined by an epilogue — which writers should avoid like the plague). Ditto for Bel Canto. At least Memoirs of a Geisha is nowhere to be found. And what the hell is Waiting for Exhale doing on this list? Clearly, this is not about being the best. If it were, I don’t think Practical Magic would be making an appearance. And Gilead would be much, much higher.
But there are some nice appearances. Love me some Alice Munro. And glad that Philip Pullman got himself on there (for his whole trilogy I might add unlike some fantasy books that only got one on the list). And E.L. Doctorow (although why that instead of The March or Billy Bathgate I can’t figure out). And Randy Shilts and Paul Monette whose books will stand like gravestones on the literary field of the AIDS epidemic.
So discuss. And just to be pretentious about it, I marked the ones I’ve read (although I own twice as many as I’ve read). ‘Cause that’s what people with useless M.A.s in English Literature do to make themselves feel better.
1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)*
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)*
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)*
4. The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)*
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)*
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)*
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)*
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)*
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)*
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)*
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)*
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)*
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)*
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)*
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)*
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien (1990)*
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)*
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)*
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)*
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)*
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)*
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World’s Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)*
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)*
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)*
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)*
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)*
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)*
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)*
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)*
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)*
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)*
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)*
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)*
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)*
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)*
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)*
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)*
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)*
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)*
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)*
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)*
98. The Predators’ Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)*
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)*
3 responses so far ↓
1 Melissa // Jul 7, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I don’t have a MA in Literature, but I know people who think the public library is at my house. Where do you keep your TBR books? Mine currently reside under my bed. If I stacked them all up, they’d be taller than I am by A LOT.
I hated Beloved. I don’t know why people think that’s such a great work of literature because honestly I think it might be the biggest bunch of crap I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot of crap. IMHO Laurel K. Hamilton’s Vampire Hunter books have more socially redeeming value. That’s how crappy I think that book is.
Loved Angela’s Ashes - I identified too much with the family getting thrown out of church because the dad couldn’t act right.
Cold Mountain could have been a good 75 pages shorter and not missed a beat. The author went into all this minute detail about plant life in the south, and I’m thinking, “Who cares?” But, I stuck with that long, boring book because I wanted to see that poor schmuck get home to his girlfriend. Then, I ended up throwing the book across the room.
I read almost half of the Windup Bird Chronicles. It wasn’t boring or anything, but halfway through the book, I realized I had no idea what the plot was, if it even had a plot, or where the book was going.
The DaVinci Code is another book that I don’t get what the fuss is about. It was entertaining, but it was a work of fiction.
I love Kate Atkinson’s books, and would recommend them to anyone.
I loved Bridget Jones’ Diary, but I don’t think it qualifies as a great work of literature.
2 mennomom // Jul 9, 2008 at 11:26 am
Yes Melissa, I would have to agree with you on DaVinci Code. Entertaining on a certain level, but hardly great literature (characters poorly developed and dialogue stilted) and I too wondered what all the fuss was about. And guess what, more people probably read the book because of the fuss than would have otherwise!) Angela’s Ashes was powerful and had a way of drawing you in to the characters and story. I’m partial to Gilead and A Thousand Acres because of their Iowa setting, and Fast Food Nation is a must read for anyone who has even a smidgen of social awareness. I know everyone raves about Band Played On - I tried to read it but only got about 1/3 the way through, because it was so tedious. And Tipping Point was excellent.
3 urbanmenno // Jul 9, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I’m a big fan of Kate Atkinson as well. I actually gave her first book as a Christmas gift to my sister, then borrowed it, read it and wished I had bought it for myself (I remedied that later).
Poor MennoMom … I try to convince her of the greatness of “The Band Played On” but get nowhere. Sigh.
Underworld is the one I can’t get through. I try and try and then give up. I need to seclude myself in a windowless room with nothing but bread and water and just freaking do it.
Leave a Comment