Posted by Sterling on 23/5/2011, 23:11:09, in reply to "Lists"
74.240.99.210
OK, I'll play.
I've set up a rule for myself. I don't get to drop a book unless I have actually read it and found it unworthy of inclusion. Simply suspecting that I might not like a novel is unfair. I'm quite sure that I wouldn't like The Rainbow or Women in Love. I disliked Sons and Lovers, and I have never seen any reason to read any more Lawrence. Still, I might adore the other two if I actually read them. Who knows? As another example: I am not exactly champing at the bit to read The Old Wives' Tale, but maybe it's great. I haven't read it.
So. With this in mind, I dispatch the following:
Sons and Lovers
An American Tragedy
The Sheltering Sky (Well written novel, but I hated it.)
Brave New World
Slaughterhouse-Five
Studs Lonigan
Animal Farm
The Secret Agent
The Maltese Falcon
From Here to Eternity
The Wapshot Chronicles
Ragtime
The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Ginger Man
The Moviegoer
Tropic of Cancer
Off hand, I would add to the list:
Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon)
Underworld (DeLillo)
Little, Big (Crowley)
The Public Burning (Coover)
A Glastonbury Romance (Powys)
The Sot-Weed Factor (Barth)
The Recognitions (Gaddis)
Sometimes a Great Notion (Kesey)
Money (Amis)
The Rabbit novels (Updike)
A Flag for Sunrise (or Dog Soldiers) (Stone)
Blood Meridian (McCarthy)
The Book of the New Sun (Wolfe)
Ancient Evenings (Mailer)
The Long Goodbye (or The Big Sleep) (Chandler)
Red Harvest (Hammett)
Red Harvest beats the tar out of The Maltese Falcon for slam-bang pulpy excitement.
James M. Cain but not Raymond Chandler? For shame.
It appears that I have a much greater fondness for post-modernism than the Modern Library critics.
Slaughterhouse-Five is science fiction. The Book of the New Sun is incomparably better. So is Little, Big.
Those tired dystopias of Orwell and Huxley have seen their day, and Animal Farm satirizes a Soviet Union that no longer exists.
I didn't remove The Naked and the Dead, although I woud happily substitute Ancient Evenings, which I think is a much finer work.
I have not read
Appointment in Samarra
Kim
The Magnificent Ambersons
so I can't take them off by my rule. Loving, I would definitely keep.
I absolutely love A Glastonbury Romance, but no one seems to have read it but me.
I would have included The Corrections, but, alas, it belongs to this century.
--Previous Message--
: --Previous Message--
: ... the (deservedly) much maligned Modern
: Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century list ...
:
: For all its flaws, the list did accomplish one thing:
: It got me interested twelve years ago in reading
: literary fiction. I started with #2 on the list, The
: Great Gatsby.
:
: A question for everyone: What would you change about
: the list? Which books would you drop off? What would
: you add? (This is easier than trying to make our own
: list from scratch, and the numbers don't have to
: match.)
:
: Here is a link to the list: 100 Best Novels «
: Modern Library
:
: I don't care at all, by the way, for the
: "Reader's List," a popularity poll that was
: obviously disproportionately influenced by
: Scientologists and Libertarians.
:
: The criteria for the "Board's List" are that
: it be an English-language novel first published in the
: 20th Century. One of the listed books clearly does not
: meet that test: Darkness at Noon was written in
: German, not English. Some may also claim that the
: various series (e.g. USA Trilogy, Parade's End,
: Alexandria Quartet) shouldn't be included as such, but
: I'm inclined to allow it.
:
: The books I would most likely drop from the list:
:
: Appointment in Samarra
: Studs Lonigan Trilogy
: Kim
: Loving
: The Postman Always Rings Twice
: The Ginger Man
: The Magnificent Ambersons
: The Secret Agent
:
: I would also drop Finnegans Wake. It is an impressive
: achievement to be sure, but I doubt that even James
: Joyce himself could understand more than half of it if
: he hadn't been the one to write it. I "read"
: it, but I was doing well to make sense of one line per
: page.
:
: I would probably replace Henderson the Rain King with
: Herzog, and Death Comes for the Archbishop with My
: Antonia.
:
: Books I would definitely add:
:
: Gravity's Rainbow
: Blood Meridian
: Housekeeping
: The French Lieutenant's Woman
: Wise Blood
: Possession
:
: Toni Morrison needs to be on the list, probably with
: Beloved, but possibly with Song of Solomon (which I
: haven't read, so I can't say).
:
: Other books I might add if I could find room:
:
: Rabbit, Run
: Disgrace
: The Conservationist
: A Fine Balance
: The God of Small Things
: The Golden Notebook
: A Confederacy of Dunces
:
: There are, by the way, several other lists comparable
: to the Modern Library's available online. I can
: provide some links if anyone is interested.
:
:
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