Contemporary American novels please

John Irving novels? Not post 9/11, but always a good read.

The history of love Nichole Krauss. Our book club loved it.

The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin - I found it very American, and American friends enjoyed it too. Just seen that a film was released there a couple of months ago.

Yes yes is The Interestings you are thinking of. It's fab.

Meg Wolitzer's books are well worth a read. Haven't got round to 'The Interestings' yet, but I loved 'The Position'.....about a family where the parents had published a famous sex-manual (think 'The Joy of Sex') and the now-adult kids had grown up having to deal with the resulting notoriety. It's a great book - funny and wise.

Jim Harrison?

Poe Ballantine's short stories?

I would second AM Holmes, Barbara Kingsolver and Jennifer Egan - I loved the Goon Squad book.

Donna Tartt is great, but you've probably already read her.

Have only read one short story by Lorrie Moore, but it was great, and want to read some more.

Glad to see the Paul Auster recommendations - a friend recommended him a while back, and I bought a secondhand copy of The Music of Chance that's been sitting on my shelf since Christmas, so I'm going to read that next.

I read Michael Cunningham's Flesh and Blood recently which was excellent though depressing. Also recommend AM Home and love Barbara Kingsolver.

Have you read the sequel to Tinkers yet? It's called Enon and follows the grandson of the protagonist in Tinkers. I'm a huge fan of both The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex and so I'm planning to read The Marriage Plot very soon. (To my mind, Eugenides is a far better writer than Donna Tartt)

I'd second the Lorrie Moore and John Irving recommendations and would add Dave Eggers and Miranda July.

Great suggestions on here- I will be giving lots a try.

And please don't forget the wonderful Armistead Maupin- a fabulous writer, every book is an absolute joy :)

Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad is a cracking book. I found it a little hard to focus at first but then couldn't put it down.

I second David Foster Wallace - very interesting soul who died far too young.

Oh yes MsAmerica, that is a wonderful book!

The single most impressive contemporary American novel I've read in the last several years is Timbuktu, by Paul Auster.

A bookstore told me that they have to keep his books behind the desk because they are so often stolen.

Richard Powers is a contemporary American writer who is inexplicably unknown over here. I have read most of his books - they are all good, and some are brilliant. Of his more recent ones, I'd recommend The Echo Maker, or Generosity, or The Time of Our Singing.

Oh and John Irving - I love his books.

Lorrie Moore - one of my favourite contemporary authors.

I liked Claire Messud's earlier novel - The emperor's children. They're making a tv show of Tom Perotta's The Leftovers. I'm intrigued as I loved the book.

Tom Perotta is a favourite of mine too but didn't want to hog the thread too much .

Little Children and his latest novel which has such a clever idea behind it - what would happen if the Rapture came and you got left behind!

I wonder if you are thinking of Meg Wolitzer 'The Interestings'.
I haven't read it but I've read a few of her others which were excellant.

Don't think anyone has mentioned Tom Perrotta?
Love all his stuff, can't pick a favourite.

I second A M Homes and Jennifer Egan.

Siri Hustvedt is one of my favourite authors. I don't know if she has published anything in the last year, but I loved What I Loved and The Sorrows of an American.

My 'specialist subject'

These are my favourites and are lighter fiction.

Baliey White - Sleeping at the Starlite Motel/Mama Makes Up her Mind/A Good Year For Plums

Michael Lee West - all of her books but especially 'Consuming Passions/She Flew The Coop/Mermaids in the Basement

Barbara Kingsolver - of course!

T C Boyle - Tortilla Curtain is my fave

Hector Tobas - The Barbarian Nurseries

Karen Russell - Vampires in the Lemon Grove/ Swamplandia

Paul La Farge - Luminous Airplanes

Janice Owens - American Ghosts

Jeanette Walls- The Glass Castle

Ann Patchett -Patron Saint of Liars

Roy Hoffman - Chicken Dreaming Corn

Fannie Flagg- Standing in the Rainbow

Pat Conroy - The Great Santini / Beach Music/ South Of Broad/ Prince of Tides

Linda Bruckheimer- all of them

Lori Lansens - Rush Home Road/The Wives Tale

Wally Lamb - everything he's ever written

Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffanys and his Southern childhood memoirs

Claire Messud: The woman upstairs.
Richard Ford: Canada

The comparison with Franzen was probably AM Homes whose name has come up but I hated the book with a vengeance.

Justin Cronin, he has the vampire ones which are excellent, but also the Summer Guest which is just a beautiful family saga.

EL Doctorov, Don deLillo.. Second the Paul Auster recommendation, he is very good but the later works can be a bit ehm.. smug?