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Original poster

Contemporary American novels please

64 replies

EdBird · 23/02/2014 20:30

looking for recommendations for contemporary American novels. Preferably post 9 - 11 but others welcome too.
Books I loved have been Middlesex, Art of Fielding, Virgin Suicides, Secret History, Tinkers, Corrections, We were the Mulvaneys and I am not allowing myself to read Cormac McCarthy books all at once as trying to eke them out
Also dont know of anyone ideas on a female American author who has recently (within last year) published a new book who is meant to be excellent and comparable to Franzen and Shriver? Read about her in the Times and she had such an unusual name that I thoght I would remember it and of course I didnt :/
Thank you

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PaulinesPen · 06/04/2014 22:23

I loved Rabbit Run. It takes some concentration and I could only read it a bit at a time, but I thought it was magnificent. I def want to read the rest.

Good thread, lots of interesting suggestions hereSmile

DangoDays · 06/04/2014 22:00

Haven't read any John Updike but know I should.

Oh an Juno Diaz 'brief and wondrous life of Oscar Wao' - amazing. It has brilliant voices and fresh use of footnotes! Love it.

DangoDays · 06/04/2014 21:56

Robert Coover - the Public Burning

Philip Roth - American Pastoral

Handbook for lightning strike survivors - Michele young stone

Going to have a good look back over recommendations ready for Easter reading. Thanks everyone!

AmyTanFan · 06/04/2014 21:49

Oh I want to read the Karen Joy Fowler, too.

I read American female writers almost exclusively. Love Louise Erdrich, Anne Tyler, Amy Tan, Elizabeth Strout, Ann Patchett and Curtis Sittenfeld. Also loved Courtney Sullivan's novel Maine from last summer and I rather liked Anna Quindlen's Still Life with Breadcrumbs.

hackmum · 04/04/2014 18:09

Has anyone else read any John Updike? I read Rabbit, Run recently - found it hard to get into but was very impressed once it got going. There are some passages towards the end that are incredibly powerful and moving.

MadamBatShit · 04/04/2014 17:46

I read the Summer without men recently and was a bit Hmm when she described life 'as so wonderfully phrased by eminent author: the music of chance..' or something or other. Yuck.
I was disappointed but then again I'm easily hurt. Smile

EarlGreyCuppa · 04/04/2014 17:35

I love Paul Auster, esp the earlier works. I would also recommend his wife Siri Husvedt, her book "What I Loved", it was an amazing read.

MadamBatShit · 04/04/2014 16:52

I am half way through We are all completely besides ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler and it is fabulous! Don't read any of the reviews as they give too much away.

BsshBossh · 19/03/2014 06:56

Oh yes, and Wally Lamb's latest.

BsshBossh · 19/03/2014 06:56

My recent reads: Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon (especially Telegraph Hill), Donna Tartt's latest, Joshua Ferris, Jonathan Saffran Froer.

PollyJames · 18/03/2014 21:16

I'd second (or third, or whatever) A.M. Homes and Annie Proulx, and add Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch". (I know you've already got her debut novel, "The Secret History" on your list, but Goldfinch is also wonderful!)

For novels and short story collections pre-9/11, I can't recommend Ellen Gilchrist enough....particularly "In the Land of Dreamy Dreams" and "The Annunciation".

PepeLePew · 10/03/2014 22:34

Claire Messud - I've enjoyed everything she has written.
Jonathan Dee is good, I thought Palladio was excellent.
Donna Tartt redeemed herself enormously with The Goldfinch, I thought.

I do love a good contemporary American novel! This thread is inspiring.

MrsDavidBowie · 09/03/2014 15:53

Armistead Maupin
Paulina Simon
Marge Piercy

IDismyname · 09/03/2014 14:18

I'm halfway through Donna Tartts Goldfinch. Love it - absolutely love her stuff...

mmack · 09/03/2014 14:14

I love Wally Lamb and Lionel Shriver and would also recommend Alice McDermott, Alice Hoffman and Jane Smiley. Also can I recommend two Canadians, Ann-Marie MacDonald and Carol Shields? The Way the Crow Flies (McDonald) and Unless (Shields) are both amazing.

iseenodust · 08/03/2014 17:34

I'm just starting Olive Kitteridge by E Strout who won a Pulitzer Prize. IS she the funny name?

iseenodust · 08/03/2014 17:18

The latest Sara Paretsky is a good read. Modern day murder with links back to WW2.
For humour Carl Hiaisen 'Sick Puppy'.

MadamBatShit · 08/03/2014 10:36

I've just started Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers and am already loving it. Recommend, but of course it can fall flat like AM Homes did imho, after a great start.

KinkyDorito · 08/03/2014 06:59

Wallly Lamb - She's Come Undone. Just super. Also love AM Homes.

Mefisto · 08/03/2014 00:56

Oops Richard Bausch link

FrancesGlass · 08/03/2014 00:56

And yes, the MN name is relevant!

FrancesGlass · 08/03/2014 00:55

Oh, and even though it's not post 9-11, JD Salinger's Nine Stories is lovely and disturbing and dark and funny. As are his novels. All of them. (But read Catcher in the Rye last as it's his least best work...)

FrancesGlass · 08/03/2014 00:52

Many of the above are amazing.

Just have to second Miranda July and add Aimee Bender. (But not for the faint of heart...)

Mefisto · 08/03/2014 00:38

DH has just plonked a stack of books in my lap. They include:

Benjamin Percy - The Wilding

Await Your Reply - Dan Chaon

Robert Stone - Fun With Problems

Ron Rash - Chemistry and other Stories

Tao Lin - Richard Yates

Ben Lerner - Leaving the Atocha Station

Kevin Canty - Everything

Haven't read The Motel Life but it sounds right up my street.

Mefisto · 08/03/2014 00:25

Thomas McGuane - Driving on the Rim. good reads link

Richard Bausch - Something Out There (short stories) good reads link