Modern Classics…

Nice update and list, a good mix of classics. Hope he enjoys them!

I used to belong to a book group, and one of our members was a retired lecturer. She had a PhD in literature and had taught at Warwick University. We were in awe of her. I once asked her what she thought were the best novels written in English in the 20th-century (not the woke, 'inclusive', PC list, but the real list, based purely on quality). This was what she sent me:

1. James Joyce: Ulysses
2. D. H. Lawrence: Women in Love
3. Nabokov: Lolita
4. Nabokov: Pale Fire
5. Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent
6. Saul Bellow: Augie March
7. Joseph Heller: Catch 22
8. Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse
9. Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian
10. Ford Madox Ford: Parade's End

She didn't like Hemingway, who she thought was overrated, but she admired Thomas Pynchon and Samuel Beckett. She thought Proust was the greatest writer of the 20th-century, followed by Kafka. She also thought George Orwell was a terrible novelist but a great essayist. She didn't like Aldous Huxley either, which disappointed me since he's my favourite😕.

Onl just seen this thread and I know it’s too late, but I’d love to see what you choose.

My top choices would be:

A Clockwork Orange
The Stand by Stephen King
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Lord of the Flies
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
The Book Thief
The Handmaid’s Tale

World War Z

not necessarily because I think they’re all the best books ever written but because I think they all have something worth saying and have broad teenage boy appeal

Bloody hell @Dappy777 are you still coming out with that racist and sexist opinion? Straight, white, conservative men are a minority in the world. If your criteria says they are the only good writers that suggests your criteria are wrong. The history of literature goes back thousands of years and for much of that Europe didn't have access to paper and so literacy was much less widespread than in other parts of the world. You really think there have never been any great writers in China, Japan or India? West Africa, Egypt, Persia? And if you are (yet again) going to plead ignorance of works in translation please explain why you are repeatedly dismissive of black female writers in the anglosphere. Live a little, read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie or Buchi Emecheta. You may have your tiny mind blown.

Why not? Surely we should ignore everything except the quality of the work. If all the best novels have been written by straight, white, conservative men, then we should be honest and say so, not pretend that a second rate novel is great just because the author ticks certain boxes.

@AlwaysSometimesNeverwhich ten did you go for in the end?!

There are some really good French and Russian authors. I really liked Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn when I was younger.

I gave a much loved student my copy of A Suitable Boy when he left . It's an undertaking but its wonderful.

Agree with Beloved and would also add Captain Corelli, God Of Small Things and White Teeth as books 17 year old A level readers enjoy but might not read otherwise.

I know why the Caged Bird Sings
Handmaid's
The Well of Loneliness Radcliffe Hall.
The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith.
Perfume.

This is a fab thread and as I’ve recently got back into reading (who knew it would be as easy as deleting the time wasting scourge that is Instagram!) I shall be returning to look up recommendations.

My offering would be The Master and Marguerita by Bulgakov.

I really liked A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine. The idea of communal living appealed to me at the time and the fact it was set in the 70s!

I agree Rebecca is a great novel, I first read Lord of the Flies in school. It’s another book that stays with you. We Need to Talk About Kevin is devastating. I read it after I had become a mother and just couldn’t imagine what Eva was going through.

I read Catcher in the Rye at school and didn't get it at all. I'm probably missing something though.

Modernish books that have stayed with me:

Rebecca (my favourite).
We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Lord of the Flies.

Boring:

Remains of the Day.
White Teeth.
Mrs Dalloway.

Underwhelming:

Atonement.
Room with a View.

If in doubt, I generally revert back to Barbara Vine, but I don't think she has classic status (yet). Will be one day, though, I think. Dark Adapted Eye is an absolute banger.

Papillon

Great book! I read all 4 of his books in my teens.
i liked Franny and Zooey as well.

Catcher in the Rye

Some fabulous recommendations here

Same but by the time we read it times were different! I found it quite sad too.

Another book Maurice wasn’t published until after E.M Forster had died. He kept delaying publication as he knew the public weren’t ready for it! When I read it in my teens I thought it was quite tame. I suppose it’s a bit like Lady Chatterley’s Lover!

The Bell Jar is a hugely overrated misery memoir. Don’t give that to anyone you like!

That was my thinking, it's culturally important. I read it in my teens and remember being a bit suprised and bemused why it was banned. Maybe I was expecting something a bit racy and if anything it's quite dry and sad. In my youth I didn't fully appreciate how different the times were.

I’ve read The Well of Loneliness. It got banned for a while after publication, thought to be obscene!

I know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I read quite a few of her books in my teens.

-Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

For a mix of variety and modern books which caused a stir at the time but have been a bit overlooked since maybe consider

-Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
-Passing by Nella Larsen
-Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
-One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
by Ken Kesey
-A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines
-The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, although that's marmite I think. Important though.

Agree with suggestion of We Need To Talk About Kevin. Some brilliant recommendations on here!

I both do and don't envy you OP - I would love someone to ask me for this gift, then find it impossible to narrow it down!
I'd love to know what you go with.