Any project like this is arbitrary, and ours is no exception. But the time frame is not quite as random as it may seem. The aughts and teens represent a fairly coherent cultural period, stretching from the eerie decadence of pre-9/11 America to the presidency of Donald Trump. This mini-era packed in the political, social, and cultural shifts of the average century, while following the arc of an epic narrative (perhaps a tragedy, though we pray for a happier sequel). Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, one of our panel’s favorite books, came out ten days before the World Trade Center fell; subsequent novels reflected that cataclysm’s destabilizing effects, the waves of hope and despair that accompanied wars, economic collapse, permanent-seeming victories for the once excluded, and the vicious backlash under which we currently shudder. They also reflected the fragmentation of culture brought about by social media. The novels of the Trump era await their shot at the canon of the future; because of the time it takes to write a book, we haven’t really seen them yet....The Trump era books haven't come out yet, but one of the books in the canon is "The Plot Against America," by Philip Roth (September 30, 2004), and...
It can be easy to forget that The Plot Against America, which today reads as a parable for Trump’s America, was widely received as an allegory for W.’s — an interpretation that Roth encouraged by insisting the opposite. The novel begins in a buzz of fear and the pitch increases steadily, unbearably. But it’s Roth’s doomed hero, Walter Winchell, whose speeches have the uncanny urgency of prophecy: “How long will Americans remain asleep while their cherished Constitution is torn to shreds by the fascist fifth column of the Republican right marching under the sign of the cross and the flag?”An interpretation that Roth encouraged by insisting the opposite... ha ha. Years ago, that used to be called "reverse psychology." It used to come up in sitcoms. We'll use reverse psychology. That is, when we want to get somebody to do something, we'll act like we want the opposite. It's like playing hard to get. When you suspect someone's trying to do that to you, you say they "protest too much."
Maybe I'll read "The Plot Against America." And by read, I mean let it read itself to me as I take my walks about Madison. I've read very few of the books in The Vulture's canon. Only "The Year of Magical Thinking" — maybe the only nonfiction book on the list — and some of the stories in "Oblivion." I've read part of "The Sellout." I haven't even read the Haruki Murakami book on the list — "1Q84" — and I've read 5 Murakami books in the last year. So maybe the "dozens of authors and critics" on their panel are not very much like me.
Vulture also has "The Best Audiobooks of 2018 (So Far)," which influenced me to buy 2 things: "Convenience Store Woman" and "Educated: A Memoir."
Remember the Althouse Portal to Amazon if you want to buy any of these things (including the audiobooks). I like to buy the Kindle version of the book on Amazon and check the box or hit the button to add on the audiobook. You get both for a lower price than you'd pay for just the audiobook, and it's great to be able to find things in the text after you've heard them in the audiobook, especially for me, blogging and wanting to cut and paste.
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the vicious backlash under which we currently shudder.
What exactly does this "vicious backlash" consist of?
The Looming Tower, Al_Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright.
We won't be around to know if any of the books of the last 40 years survive their time outside of the hothouses of academia. Chances are, they'll still be reading Gatsby and Catcher in HS in 50 years, poor kids, but it could be worse.
A timely reminder that Trump is simply the latest in a long list that stretches back to 1948 of republicans accused directly of being Hitler.
In the 1948 case, Truman covered all his bases by also calling Dewey a "Stalin" in waiting as well.
Bush was Hitler, Trump is Hitler. Before that, Reagan was Hitler, Nixon was Hitler, and the only thing that saved Ike is that the he lived in an era (before Prof. Althouse's generation came of age) when the left wasn't quite so frenzied with hatred. So far, the 21st century looks a lot like the 20th.
I've had that Murakami book in my Kindle fire 3 years. I'm about halfway through. It reveals itself veerrrrryyyy slowly
I suppose you could argue there are "100 most important books" so long as you recognize the work done in that phrase by "most."
As it is, there have been books I enjoyed. But important books? I can't think of any. Too soon to tell in any case. And there probably won't be more than a couple dozen in the entire century.
I liked "The Corrections," but Franzen's "Freedom" and "Purity" were both better books. The best fiction I've read in awhile.
Roth didn’t have a good book this century. The Plot against America was silly. He should have announced his retirement from writing 20 years ago or died 20 years ago. The same is true of DeLillo. His stuff the last 20 years is dreck.
Guys like Roth and DeLillo were useless after 9/11 and are more useless now that Trump is president. Their skills of observation and insight aren’t up to the task. Maybe it’s becsuse they were too old.
Updike wrote a novel about terrorism that was just trash. He should have died or stopped writing 30 years ago.
Actually, constructing a canon of any kind is a little weird at the moment, when so much of how we measure cultural value is in flux.
In other words, the fight continues and we are not really sure how far we can push the culture to the left just yet, but hey, Margarat Attwood has deep insight into the human condition, the kinds of insights people seek from great literature! Or at least she gives the kinds of answers we want people hearing!
So many people went crazy between the attempted theft of the presidency in 2000 and 9-11 in 2001. Trump is a reaction to that crazy and unfortunate drift to the left from the oldest political party in the oldest democracy in the world.
Not my world, I don't live there. All that politics posing as though is boring.
I am sure though that Roth’s screed against Republicans will be remembered right up there with the Gettysburg Address in a couple of hundred years.
Save yourself the time on “1Q84.” It’s a long slog with minimal payoff.
Novelists generally make a complete hash of writing about the current events of their times. I struggle to think of a single Canon-worthy novel with a torn-from-the-headlines theme. Twenty or thirty years after the fact, maybe. OK, Bonfire of the Vanities, but what else?
mini-era
No.
permanent-seeming victories for the once excluded, and the vicious backlash under which we currently shudder.
The creature who wrote that made a list, and I bet it is a grand list, indeed.
Save yourself the time on “1Q84.”
Yup. Murakami is not very good, he writes kids' fantasy stories that are too boring for actual kids.
I've liked the Murakami that I've read, but I get turned off by giant novels. The longer it is, the more likely that the editor couldn't reign in the author's worst instincts.
The problem with so much modern literature is that the publishing gatekeepers stop divergent points of view from reaching mass markets. Therefore, a lot of what you get is boilerplate and predictable. The fact that the words are strung together nicely does not overcome those flaws.
Great writing would be able to get past the gatekeepers with the sort of subtlety their preconceptions would not catch. Allegory that reads multiple ways, that tells an interesting tale, and challenges the reader on a deeper level that would be apparent from a surface reading.
But maybe anti-Republican writing isn't boring. /s
The smart novelist who wants to ride their ideological hobbyhorse sets their novel in a period where the protagonist can stand out against the times. The Victorian feminist, the ‘50’s Leftist, the First World War pacifist. Sure, they’re well worn themes but the critics still love ‘em.
I scanned through the list. Most of the books I never heard of. The exceptions were the ones with movie versions. There were some novels that sounded intriguing, but, at this point in my life, I have less interest in fiction than I do in celebrity memoirs. I'm sure some are worthy illuminations of the plot arc of the new millennium, but I won't be around long enough to see how it all works out, so pass.
Ha! They fucked up. They list as "Best Book of the Century" (So far) a book that came out last Century:THE LAST SAMURAI by Helen DeWitt, published September 20, 2000.
What dopes!
The first Murakami book I read was "Norwegian Wood," so if you want to like him and then go on to other things, I can recommend starting there.
The really weird, long, complicated one I read was "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle." Now, I "read" it as an audiobook, always walking while listening, so I was in no rush to get to the end or figure out what the hell was going on. I just enjoyed the accompaniment to walking. It was more like conversation or music. To sit down and read and try to power through it might not be rewarding. I wouldn't know.
I read the news and can't stand the news on TV, because I don't want my time filled by news. I spend hours a day reading on line and finding things to blog and writing, so I don't really like spending my other time staring at text (especially since my eyesight is bad and once I relax and am not looking for bloggable things, I really notice the deficiency). So when I read a whole book and want to stick it out to the end, I use an audiobook.
Given that Wacky-gate (or Wacky-quiddick for those of right-wing persuasion) has reared its ugly head, The only book we should be reading is "Daffy Duck for President"
(Available, of course, through the Althouse portal)
Make no mistake, friends, Wacky-gate (or, again, Wacky-quiddick) is what should be first and foremost on everybody's mind.
For your benefit, I have created a brief synopsis of the crisis in a previous Althouse thread: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2018/09/kavanaugh-is-great-intellect-great.html
We need get ahead of this crisis folks. Democracy hangs in the balance.
Best Books of the Years Beginning with 2 doesn't quite cut it, Cook.
Was James Patterson on the list?
What happened to What Happened?
What dopes!
Cook was celebrating the new century the night of December 31, 2000, wondering where everyone else was.
Yes,James K., the 20th Century ended at midnight, December 31, 2000, and the 21st Century commenced one second later, January 01, 2001.
A total and complete fraud of a list.
No Tom Wolfe? Back to Blood and I am Charlotte Simmons is better than every book on that stupid list with the one exception being Cormac McCarthy's book.
Also missing is M. Reese Kennedy's masterpiece, "The Plague of Dreamlessness" which will soon be a major motion picture.
I simply just don't care.
"I simply just don't care."
9/21/18, 11:53 AM
They why bother commenting?
They why bother commenting?
Is it wrong that I hear Alan Rickman's voice in my head whenever I read one of Cookie's posts?
I only discovered yesterday that when it comes to headsets, there's a big difference between open-back and closed-back systems.
Hemingway supposedly said that writers who write political novels die just like all other writers, it’s just that “their corpses stink more.”
Nice movie "In Harmony" Cecile de France (2015) in French with English subtitles (not much dialogue - it's how I'd watch even a dubbed movie anyway, in original French so the lips match the words).
Two people help each other out. No tits. The good guys like classical music instead of the evil-doers. No romcom formula.
Also recommended for similar lightness
In a Day (2006)
Stranger than Fiction (2006)
Eagle vs Shark (2007)
"Robert Cook said...
Ha! They fucked up. They list as "Best Book of the Century" (So far) a book that came out last Century:THE LAST SAMURAI by Helen DeWitt, published September 20, 2000.
What dopes!"
Totally agree.
If you're going to be intellectually pretentious about your leisure reading, you ought to at least fake being well-educated. I've heard some people employ layers and layers of fact-checkers for such a purpose.
I'd put "The Martian" on that list for several reasons.
First, it was a return to an old-fashioned can-do kind of science fiction. And it was a good read.
Second, it caught hold of a mission-to-Mars excitement that probably is going to be a big part of the 21st century.
Third, it was initially self-published, only to later gain the author an agent, a publisher, and a Hollywood movie contract for a blockbuster movie. In this way it's an important part of the way the process of books is changing in this century.
Fourth, did I mention it was a good read?
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